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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27295534">Forever is a Long Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherBoredFan/pseuds/AnotherBoredFan'>AnotherBoredFan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!, HetaOni</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Ao Oni-Inspired, Blood and Gore, Crossover, Explicit Language, Gen, HetaOni-Inspired, Hurt Kageyama Tobio, Implied Torture, Kageyama Tobio Needs a Hug, Mild Cursing, Mild Gore, Near Death Experiences, Non-Graphic Violence, Original Character(s), Panic Attacks, Post-Timeskip, Survival Horror, Swearing, Temporary Character Death, cause why the hell not</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:20:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>35,257</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27295534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherBoredFan/pseuds/AnotherBoredFan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><em>“Even if I wasn’t, please save yourself.” </em><br/><em>“I can’t lose you too. Not this time.” </em><br/><em>“How many are out there?” </em><br/><em>“If it’s you, then—!”</em><br/><em>“I might have a way to bring your friends back.” </em><br/><em>“Oh my. You don’t know about the restart.” </em><br/><em>“This time too, I hope they put on a good show.” </em><br/> </p><p>Kodzuken subcount is going to hit 20 mil around Halloween and Hinata saw an opportunity to reunite with his longtime friends. Naturally, things took a turn for the worse.<br/>In a place where trust is a line between getting out alive and being left to die, it’s never a good thing to keep secrets—so what the hell is Kageyama hiding?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akaashi Keiji &amp; Bokuto Koutarou, Hinata Shouyou &amp; Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou &amp; Kozume Kenma, Kageyama Tobio &amp; Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma &amp; Kuroo Tetsurou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. How It First Ended</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/9214760">Devil's Deal</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haunted_Moonlight/pseuds/Haunted_Moonlight">Haunted_Moonlight</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was just a brainrot I don't know how I got here-<br/>In the spirit of Halloween, I've gloriously thrown our favorite Haikyuu boys into an epic survival horror game! These first few chapters are inspired by Haunted Moonlight's Devil's Deal, they're awesome so go check their <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/9214760/chapters/20899787">work</a> . Take note that I have plans that may or may not differ from the HetaOni original plotline, if only to fit our Haikyuu boys into the whole thing.</p><p>Currently on mobile so the formatting might get a bit wonky but it's Halloween goddammit and I'll be damned if I don't post this today. There's also a good chance that I'm going to rewrite this chapter as the story gets more developed so please bear with me!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“As soon as that door is open, we run as fast as we can, straight to the front door. No stopping for absolutely anything.” Kuroo eyed Kageyama and Hinata who stood before him, expression firm. “I’ll open the door and you guys just prepare to run.”</p><p>Kageyama shifted uncomfortably, swallowing to keep his voice in a low whisper. “We got it already, you don’t have to keep repeating it.” Beside him, Hinata glared disapprovingly but stayed quiet.</p><p>“I mean it, you two.” Kuroo warned, lips pressed into a thin line leaving no room for argument. His stare landed on Hinata. Something in his voice gave an air of finality, as if he was bidding farewell, and Hinata couldn’t find it within himself to get Kuroo to knock it off. “Even if I fall over and- and <em>it</em> got me… even if you hear screaming. You go through that door as fast as you can, no looking back.”</p><p>“You’re not going to fall over though,” Hinata argued and Kageyama tugged on his shirt to get him to shut up already or at least to tone it down, eyebrows furrowed in feigned annoyance, but his glare faltered anyway at the end as he glanced at Kuroo’s bandaged leg worriedly. <em>You’re not going to, right?</em></p><p>“Of course not.” Kuroo flashed him a toothy grin as an attempt of reassurance. His eyes didn’t smile at all though. “My leg stopped bleeding a while ago, so—” he tried to stand from the sofa where he had been sitting to prove a point, and if a striking jolt of pain from the sudden movement forced him to sit back down with a groan, neither Hinata nor Kageyama said anything. He sucked in a breath before continuing like nothing happened. “—I’ll be right behind you.”</p><p><em>But even if I wasn’t…</em> both Kageyama and Hinata heard the unspoken continuation as Kuroo’s nerves betrayed what little bravado he displayed. Kuroo’s grin felt more of a moral obligation to lift their spirits. It was clear as day that Kuroo was putting up a front for their sake and Kageyama has never wanted to wipe that smile off his face more than this moment.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Even if I wasn’t, please save yourselves.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“You better not. I can’t lose—" Hinata started but, in an effort to catch a sob, stopped and swallowed hard. He blinked furiously to rid tears from blocking his vision. He looked back up at Kuroo, who still had that placid grin on his face.</p><p>“We can’t lose another friend.” Kageyama finished for him, and he bit down the spike of grief that threatened to overflow. He wanted to say the same thing too.</p><p>Kageyama didn’t once let himself entertain the thought of losing the last of his friends in this place, but he knew how difficult that would be for Hinata, especially after what they had witnessed barely hours earlier. A scene so terrifying should not have been something an average person could lay their eyes upon. The putrid smell of iron in the air made Kageyama’s stomach lurch and he didn’t dare look any further. He wasn’t particularly close to Kenma, but Hinata and Kuroo certainly were, and he could only imagine the sorrow they were bottling up because none of them can afford having a mental breakdown when there’s a literal monster lurking just outside their hiding place strong enough to possibly tear down the door that was only secured with locks and a chair wedged against the knob, just as it was strong enough <em>to twist a human arm until it was torn off from the joints—</em></p><p>Kageyama pushed the image to the very back of his mind with a shake of his head. He’ll think about that later, when they were safely out of this hell hole. They’ll have time, Kageyama assured himself. They’ll have all the time in the world. “We’re not losing you too, so you better run like hell, Kuroo-san.”</p><p> </p><p>Hinata went over to lend his shoulder but Kuroo quickly brushed him off with a “I can walk just fine. Really. Worry about yourself, Shrimpy,” so Hinata settled by bartering his metal pipe for Kuroo’s kitchen knife so the black-haired middle blocker can use it as a walking cane. Silence fell over the room again before Kuroo spoke, rising to his feet and leaning to his metal pipe with a sigh. “So, any last words before we get going? Or, in case this gets fucked up like all our other past attempts?”</p><p>“Don’t joke about stuff like that” was what Kageyama wanted to say, and no doubt Hinata wanted to say something to the same effect also, but well, shit. Things has fallen apart way more times before and there’s no guarantee that this time would be any different. So instead he ran a hand through his hair and stepped back, cracking some semblance of a weak smile. “Don’t need one. We gotta survive, no doubt. Kozume-san would come back from the grave to kill me if I let any one of you die.”</p><p>He immediately cringed at his pathetic attempt of a joke but Hinata smiled anyway, and even though it still sounded somber Kuroo also chuckled softly. “Sounds like him. Don’t worry, I won’t give him a reason to.”</p><p>The three of them were going to survive. If not for themselves, then at least for Kenma. For Kenma and Bokuto, and Oikawa, and Sakusa, and Atsumu, and Aran, and Hoshiumi, and Yaku, and Ushijima, and- <em>fuck why did this list have to be so long?!</em></p><p>They have to get out alive, if only to break the news to their loved ones because they deserve to know.</p><p> </p><p>God, the thought itself was overwhelming.</p><p> </p><p>“Just one more sprint down the hall. You got the key right?” Kageyama answered by showing a worn cobalt-colored key to Kuroo. “Good. On three then.”</p><p>Kuroo counted down, yanked the door open, and did a quick glance around the hallways before signaling the rest to move. The three of them ran forward, past the library, past the staircase, continue down the hall until the front door. The indestructible front door they couldn’t kick down or lock-pick, the door that forced all twelve of them to go on a roundabout way to find the key through deadly traps that turned twelve to eleven when it first got Bokuto, and eleven to nine with Hoshiumi and Yaku, and nine to six when Sakusa and Oikawa and Ushijima fell victim to the next, then five with Aran, and four with Atsumu, and then three with Kenma when he wasn’t quick enough to hide— <em>No.</em> Focus, this is their chance to escape. After everything they went through, all the sacrifice, they weren’t going to screw this up now.</p><p>They were twenty feet from the door, finally, <em>finally</em>, when Kuroo heard a creak of the floorboards from behind him. Slowly all three of them turned to look at the staircase—</p><p> </p><p>Ten feet tall, grey-skinned, with a head seemingly too large for its own body, and dreadful black eyes staring down at them.</p><p>The monster was there. The monster who killed their friends was there on the staircase where Kuroo must’ve overlooked, or it must’ve just now gotten down from the second floor in some kind of sick unfortunate fate—</p><p>It slowly turned towards the hallway. A step down the staircase, two steps.</p><p>The thing was charging towards them.</p><p>Kuroo shoved both Hinata and Kageyama forward. <em>“RUN!”</em></p><p> </p><p>Everything happened so fast.</p><p> </p><p>Kuroo screaming, a loud <em>thump!</em> then a <em>crunch!</em> and <em>crack!</em> and Kuroo must’ve landed a blow or two from the sound of metal hitting flesh, Hinata screaming Kuroo’s name on the top of his lungs, but Kuroo told them not to look back no matter what, Kuroo told them <em>no stopping for absolutely anything</em>, so Kageyama darted as fast as his feet can carry him, fumbled with the key with trembling hands and jammed it into the lock, twisting it open, don’t look back, <em>no looking back</em>, and practically threw his whole body forwards as the door swung open and having the cold night air stinging his skin like daggers along with the pouring rain—</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama staggered back wildly and found no one there with him.</p><p> </p><p>Hinata, who’s kneeling down inches from the monster—<em>Hinata you idiot! Move!</em>— eyes wide as saucers, screaming Kuroo’s name, pleading for the monster to <em>let him go! Let Kuroo-san go!,</em> thrusting his knife onto the monster’s leg uselessly as it held Kuroo by the head high in the air, Kuroo, faintly, voice mangled and weak as he struggled desperately to free himself, telling Hinata to <em>run away! Hurry!</em> and Kageyama would’ve also screamed for Hinata, but his voice only came out in a whisper as he reached a hand out for the last two people he had left—</p><p> </p><p>The monster lifted its hand even higher, and <em>crushed.</em></p><p> </p><p>Hinata’s scream muffled the sickening squelch and horrid grunts and Kageyama couldn’t get his feet to move back in and get Hinata away from the monster before the mansion made the decision for him with a door slamming in Kageyama’s face.</p><p>The noises on the other side of the door, the screams, the terrifying sound of bones crushing, his name being called once, twice, it all ended in mere seconds. What followed were stretches of infinities as silence rang in his ears like screams that no longer was. Kageyama stood there, mouth agape and frozen in place.</p><p>Even as the seeping red from beneath the door slowly dissolved into puddles of rain and stained his shoes, even as the rain steadily drenched him in deafening silence, Kageyama didn’t move.</p><p> </p><p>He barely moved at all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Horrible Decision, Really</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was earlier than planned! I wanted to keep a somewhat regular uploading day every Wednesday- but this chapter is just sitting there and I couldn't wait all that long. This may or may not affect my writing pace in the future but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it!<br/>This will only be a one time thing. I think.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Dammit, nobody’s answering my calls.” Kenma cursed, shoving his phone down and throwing himself to his seat.</p><p>Kuroo side-eyed him from the driver seat, a lopsided grin plastered on his face. “Relax, maybe their phones died.”</p><p>“Or it’s on silent mode and they didn’t hear you. Akaashi does that sometimes, especially when he’s at work,” Bokuto added from a seat behind Kuroo. Beside him, Hinata slapped a +4 to a stack of uno cards between them whilst screeching a thrilled “<em>Uno!</em>”. Bokuto whined indignantly.</p><p>“After 38 calls? No way. And if <em>all</em> their phones died at the same time like this, then at this point why did I even buy them new phones. I swear if whatever stupid shenanigans they’re up to…” Kenma sighed in annoyance but didn’t continue.</p><p>“We’re here to celebrate your 20mil, remember? Don’t think too much of it!” Hinata piped up as he laid his last card to the pile. He grinned triumphantly. “That’s 17-15, Bokuto-san! Another round?”</p><p>“Dammit! I won’t lose this time!”</p><p> </p><p>The sun was almost below the horizon, but there was still enough light to illuminate the growing woods lining the road in purplish shepherd’s delight. The way sunlight was shining back up onto the underside of the cirrus refracting pink and orange hues to contrast the darkening blue sky was a lulling sight. Kuroo turned the wheels to start uphill.</p><p>Exiting from his crew’s groupchat, Kenma tapped on his screen to check his sub count and noted that it was already on 19.476.752 with no signs of slowing down. A small smile crept across his face. Well, at least that helped lift his mood a little. “They’re lucky I never publicly announced an exact date for the stream. God that would’ve been hell.”</p><p>“At least they already gave you the key to the front gate and swept the place yesterday,” Kuroo placated in an attempt to appease Kenma’s uneasiness. “What was the last thing they said anyway, your crew? Last thing I remember, the guy told me there were no rooms left unlocked so we only needed that one key. That guy with a mole on his chin, dude what’s-his-name, he should be in charge, right?”</p><p>“You mean Jun?” Kenma mentioned his head staff, a young and generally hardworking guy with dyed purple hair who for some reason wasn’t answering any of his texts nor phone calls. “He said something about needing a generator and new cables for wifi. Jun and I were just talking but then the call got cut off and I haven’t been able to reach him since.”</p><p>Hinata pulled a face. “I’m genuinely kind of worried now. I hope they’re okay.”</p><p>“They did say the service there was shitty. It’s probably that, or the power went out.” Kuroo assured. “Setting up would be a pain in the ass if that’s the case, though. We should check if every room really aren’t locked too if we’re still going with the ‘explore the haunted mansion’ route. Not to mention all the decorating. We’re in for a long night.”</p><p>Kageyama scoffed at that, piping up for the first time since he woke up a while ago. “You have no idea,” he muttered tiredly. “We can always turn back, you know. Find the nearest inn and stay there until you can contact Jun again. We don’t have to go to the mansion tonight.”</p><p>“Nah, too late for that,” Kenma rejected, his attention wandering back to his phone screen. “The only inn around here was 2 hours away from the last gas station and that was like, what, 4 hours ago I think. The mansion is closer at this point.”</p><p>“Come on Kageyama, where’s your Halloween spirit? A little bit of cleaning up is worth the spooky atmosphere!” Bokuto boomed in his patented boisterous laugh, and Kuroo chuckled at that. Kageyama just shifted in his seat and dropped the conversation.</p><p>“I get where you’re coming from, though. No one knows how long the mansion has been there or who used to live in it, or so they say.” Kuroo lightly tapped at the steering wheel, veering off a bit to dodge a pot hole on the increasingly uneven road. “Some said a witch lived there. Others said it was Frankenstein himself. But everyone agreed that it was haunted.”</p><p>“Wait, like, Frankenstein as in the doctor or the monster?” Bokuto said incredulously.</p><p>“Does it matter?”</p><p>“Whoa, sounds sketchy as hell. How’d you even find the place?”</p><p>“Not sure,” was Kenma’s distracted answer. He sent another irritated text to his crew’s group chat but at this point he doubt he’d get a reply anytime soon. “I just typed ‘old mansion secluded area’ in Lifull Home’s and this is what I got. They gave me a ‘Ghosthunter Discount’. Turn left on this one, Kuroo.”</p><p> </p><p>As the conversation shifted to one of directions and driving instructions, Hinata twisted backwards to peer over the backseat where Kageyama sat crammed with everyone’s bags and equipment. He was facing the window, looking through the passing shrubs with apparent lack of focus. On his lap was a leather bound book of which he listlessly fiddled with the edges. “Kageyama, you alright back there?”</p><p>Kageyama grunted dazedly. Hinata shrugged and went back to the game, he didn’t expect much response from Kageyama anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“I actually did ask around to some townsfolk.” Kuroo mentioned, bouncing back to their previous topic. Thinking back, Kenma did remember seeing Kuroo laughing away with an old man at the gas station just this afternoon. “They say they can hear screams sometimes in the direction of that mansion. He was adamant about it too, I don’t think he was joking.”</p><p>“And you didn’t bother to say anything until now?” an irk in Kageyama’s voice was apparent, but one would shrug it off as fatigue from sitting in the backseat through a whole day’s worth of driving on bumpy road.</p><p>“Relax, man! It’s probably just some myth they tell to scare off outsiders or something.” Bokuto laughed. “Or, it could be real and there’s a serial killer on the loose!”</p><p>“Don’t joke about that kind of stuff, Bokuto-san!” Hinata half-scolded with a giggle, and Kageyama rolled his eyes. The frustration written on his face stayed however, but that’s just how Kageyama was. Hinata had to admit though, the way Kageyama shivered when nobody else was looking almost worried him a little. He should ask him about it sometime later. “I heard they do have a local cryptid though.”</p><p> </p><p>“The blue demon.”</p><p> </p><p>Kuroo caught sight of Kageyama, whose blue eyes were now fixed on his lap as if searching for something, from the rear-view mirror. “Yeah, that. How’d you know?”</p><p>Kageyama shrugged, not bothering to look back. “Heard you guys talking about it.”</p><p>“Weren’t you asleep though?”</p><p>“You guys were loud and the smell of cigarette smoke woke me up.”</p><p>“Fair.” Kuroo laughed. None of them actually smoked, but there was a time where Kuroo was chatting up with that one townsfolk who was smoking outside the convenience store by the gas station. The old man’s cigarette was probably what Kageyama was talking about. “Anyways, yeah. I heard the blue demon looks like a crossover between Slenderman and an alien; blue skin, long limbs, nails like claws, big black eyes that hypnotise anyone who stares directly at them. Nobody should trek uphill at night else you meet it. One kid tried to get the blue demon on tape and he went missing. They only found his shoes.”</p><p>“Sounds like a bullshit story to scare children off from wondering around the mountains at night.”</p><p> </p><p>By the time the car pulled up to a cobblestone front gate the sun had completely set. The light overcast of clouds had evolved into curling black ones that sent tree branches swaying. Strange, with how the weather being nothing but hot and sunny all throughout their trip, one would’ve expected that they could steer clear from a storm tonight. Oh well.</p><p>“Wow, look at the size of that thing!” Bokuto beamed as he slammed the car door open and hopped out, staring up at the building.</p><p>It was impressive no doubt: a three story mansion stood in the middle of a vast—though overgrown and severely unkept—front garden, with walls painted in faded white. The architecture wasn’t anything especially noteworthy, but the nondescript design definitely added to its sumptuous air. Quaint in size, aging, and somewhat foreboding, Bokuto wondered how it must’ve looked like in its former glory.</p><p>“I know you rented a mansion, but holy shit! This place is like, twice as big as I expected! How much did it cost?”</p><p>“Not much, actually. ‘Ghosthunter Discount’, remember?” Kenma half-joked, now unsure how much his last conversation with the owner was actually in jest. How run down was this place, really? Could this place really be haunted? He wasn't particularly religious, and as far as he's concerned neither was the rest of them... Kenma glanced at the rest of his party, weighing on the possibility of them having to do an exorcism in a crazy run-down place in the middle of nowhere and internally screaming at the lack of designated mage or saint in his party—well, maybe Shoyou would be his first guess for that role but he's not sure if Shoyou's religious enough—</p><p><em>Enough of that</em>, Kenma shook his head to rid the intrusive thoughts. “The previous owner inherited the place but didn’t go around to sell it for years so it’s been practically abandoned before the next guy bought it to be a vocational home. He never got around to actually use it either though and it stayed abandoned till we show up. He did swear electricity and plumbing still work though, and Jun never mentioned anything worth major repairs, at least not before he went MIA.”</p><p> </p><p>As he went to unlock the gates, Kenma took his time observing the building. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he had initially expected, considering how long the place has been abandoned. He thought he had to at least tarp the windows and cover some leakage before the mansion was remotely functional, but seeing that the windows were perfectly <em>not</em> broken and the walls overall looked <em>not</em> going to fall over their heads, Kenma wondered what had his crew so worried in the first place. There’s no telling if he’d think the same once they stepped inside, though.</p><p>From behind him, Kenma could hear Kuroo curse as he crouched near the front car tire. “Ah, dammit. I wondered why the wheels felt off. We’ve got a flat tire.”</p><p>“Nothing too serious, I hope?” Kenma glanced to the trunk and wondered if they packed necessary tools to replace a tire. Kageyama was already outside, wordlessly hauling out their bags. Hinata and Bokuto went and grabbed a few things as well.</p><p>“Nah, there’s a spare tire in the back. I’ll just replace it in the morning.” Kuroo looked up at the darkening clouds. “Now let’s get inside before it starts raining. Hope it’s clean enough inside, or else Sakusa is gonna have a meltdown when he gets here.”</p><p>“Oh yeah, he’s coming here with the others, right?” Bokuto exclaimed, referring to Atsumu, Aran, Hoshiumi, Sakusa, Yaku, and Ushijima who Hinata—in the heat of the moment— invited to Kenma’s 20mil stream just moments after Kenma proposed the half-baked idea. When Atsumu gave him a blanket agreement representing the rest of the team, Kenma’s plan to peacefully stream his milestone as a streamer with his two close friends had turned into a celebration-ghost-hunt-party-stream and he couldn’t find the will within him to deny Hinata of such fun. “Haven’t seen those guys in ages! Hope they catch up to us soon.”</p><p>“Hopefully not too soon though. They just landed this afternoon, right? I won’t mind if they decide to tap out for tonight and visit us tomorrow morning, jet lag is a killer.”</p><p> </p><p>Remembering that Jun didn’t hand him a key to the front door, Kenma pushed down the handle. Contrary to its solid appearance, the door creaked painfully loud as it opened and he wondered if a key was useful after all if the door could be busted down with a good kick. They weren’t staying for a long time though, so he didn’t mind either way.</p><p> </p><p>Stepping inside, Kenma immediately noticed that the whole place looked surprisingly well-kept. The large foyer that made way for two long hallways held no clutter of any kind, no cobwebs on any corner at all, even the staircase and the parquet floor looked newly varnished under the florescent lighting (Kenma took a mental note to check all the light bulbs later). The walls were of ivory white, not peeling or dirty, just plain white. The whole place felt like a recently inhabited house, refuted only by the musty odor from lack of air circulation, but nothing opening the doors and windows couldn’t fix.</p><p>“Weren’t old abandoned mansions supposed to be a lot dirtier?”</p><p>“That’s odd, I didn’t think they’d finish cleaning the whole area in just a day. Jun would’ve hunted me down for a raise if that’s the case.”</p><p>“Someone must’ve been taking care of the house then?” Hinata supplied. “We’re in the outskirts, after all, and if the owner doesn’t keep the doors locked the kids here may have been using this huge space to hang out or stuff and cleaned up after themselves, you know?”</p><p>“You have too much faith in youngsters, Hinata.”</p><p>“You sound like an old man just now!” Bokuto snickered playfully. “Anyways. Where should we put this?”</p><p>“Uh, the kitchen should be okay. It's this way,” Kenma pointed at a door at the end of the right hallway.</p><p> </p><p>All of them filtered in and followed Kenma’s lead, but Hinata paused mid-step to find Kageyama still standing by the entrance door, looking around aimlessly with two bags on each shoulder. “Kageyama, you coming?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah. In a bit,” Kageyama answered distractedly.</p><p>“Yeah, no. Knowing you, you’d get lost in a matter of seconds when nobody’s paying attention, Bakageyama.”</p><p>Hinata waited until Kageyama was beside him before he continued walking. Kageyama spared a glance to the left hallway before making a beeline to Hinata with a grumbled “Shut it, dumbass.”</p><p> </p><p>“How are we going to decorate this place?” Bokuto’s question was heard a bit further down the hall, shifting at the weight of the heavy equipment he was helping Kuroo lift. “I mean, when it’s cleaned up like this it’s not really all that spooky. It just looks like an empty house.”</p><p>“Honestly I expected the crew to leave stuff behind since nobody has been here in years, thought it’d be way dirtier,” Kuroo agreed, sparing a glance at his surroundings. “When’s the last time the owner checked inside, again?”</p><p>“A year ago, I think? He didn’t really give me a clear answer so I was suspicious, but looking at it now I guess all that worrying was for nothing. Besides, my crew did a sweep on the first and second floor yesterday, and I plan on only using the first floor anyway, so it should be fine.”</p><p>Kenma held the door open for Kuroo and Bokuto before stepping inside himself. An immediate yelp was heard when they were greeted with the sight of dozens of mannequins and cardboard cutouts laid sporadically around the kitchen and the lounge space connected to it.</p><p>“Holy fuck! That’s creepy!”</p><p>Kenma scoffed, unsurprised. He maneuvered around the props with ease, moving a headless mannequin to make room for their equipment before plopping himself down to a sofa. “Those are leftover props from last streams. Jun and the others thought it’d be funny to use them in this stream too.”</p><p>“What kind of stream did you do that required this many mannequins?”</p><p>“A Kevin McAllister-inspired one,” Kenma answered matter-of-factly.</p><p>“Is that a cardboard cutout of <em>me</em>?” Kuroo snorted. Indeed, reclined on the wall nearest to the kitchen door, there stood a cutout of Kuroo sporting a black suit and his trademark lopsided grin. Kuroo put down his baggage before making a beeline towards it. “I know you have one, but damn. They matched the exact height and everything! I don’t know if I should feel honored or terrified.”</p><p>“Whoa, do you have one of me too?”</p><p> </p><p>As Hinata walked over to Kenma, Kageyama chose to take a closer look at the mannequins. These were no different from the mannequins you’d find in department stores, with the same artificial grimace, painted cream to mimic suntanned skin, some of them headless while others missing an arm or fingers. The cardboard cutouts bore more variety though, since they were of random celebrities and animated characters whose names he couldn’t remember. Kageyama repositioned the mannequins at random, changing its poses and positions with an intense glare very much not unlike him.</p><p>“In my head I was imagining like a rotten creaking house,” Hinata chattered away as he unloaded the bags and equipment onto the space near the counter. “But not in a creepy horror movie haunted house kind of way, more like a ‘shoot, I gotta get outta here before the whole thing collapses on me!’ kind of way, you know? Moldy, dusty, full of spiders and rats, that kind of stuff. I’m glad it’s none of those things, though! But then again, the mannequins did a really good job making everything else spookier.”</p><p>“Did you really think I’d let us go all the way here and record in a place like <em>that</em>?” Kenma asked in exasperation. Hinata merely grinned back at him, ready to shoot back babbling.</p><p> </p><p>That is, before they heard a thunk.</p><p> </p><p>All eyes rolled upwards towards the ceiling, distracted. Kuroo furrowed his eyes for a moment before looking back down at Hinata. “Maybe it’s the kids you talked about, Hinata.”</p><p>“Or a homeless person, or a crackhead,” Kenma frowned. Dammit, this was another reason why he’d wanted his crew to be on standby. With almost half of their equipment already in the building and the owner not bothering to grant them even the front door key, virtually anyone could waltz in and mess with their stuff or worse, walk away with them.</p><p>“It might just be a rat,” Kageyama offered.</p><p>“Hey, what are the odds that some sketchy group has been using this place for their cult meetings?” Bokuto chirped with a grin in between the mannequins.</p><p> </p><p>Another thunk came from upstairs. Louder this time.</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, what was <em>that</em>?”</p><p>“The sketchy cult?” Kuroo snickered, earning a curled smile from Bokuto and a deepened frown from Kenma. “Maybe.”</p><p>“I can go check,” Bokuto offered, already stepping away from the mannequins and up the door.</p><p>“It could still be just a rat, though,” Kageyama insisted.</p><p>“That’s one hell of a rat, then.” Hinata remarked from behind the counter where he’d been moving old plates to make room for the boxes they brought. “Can it be your crew trying to pull a prank on us?”</p><p>Kenma shook his head. “Jun wouln’t let any of them do that. He knows how I am with that kind of stuff, I’d drop them in a heartbeat. Maybe sue them for emotional damage.”</p><p>“Well I just thought—” Hinata argued, but his sudden motion caused the stack of plates in his hands to wobble off and fall to the floor with a loud crash. Hinata cringed. “… please tell me that was ours.”</p><p>“If it wasn’t, I can just pay for the plates and the owner won’t have anything to complain about,” Kenma waved his hand dismissively. “More importantly, are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”</p><p>Hinata was already getting the broom to clean the mess he made. “I’m good! Just surprised, is all.”</p><p> </p><p>The shattered plates distracted all but Kageyama from the matter at hand. As the sound of floorboards creaking continued, Kageyama made his way to the middle of the room, shifting his bag to another shoulder as he strained his ears to make out where exactly the sound came from. His blue eyes landed on the door and a frown fell across Kenma’s face as he got up from the sofa to join him, which got the others back on track.</p><p>“Isn’t that just footsteps? Your crew is definitely pulling a good one on us.” Bokuto said, but for once he didn’t sound completely confident with his reasoning.</p><p>“That’s it, I’m going out to check.” Kenma began, but a hand stopped him, and he glanced back to find that Kageyama was holding onto the hem of his shirt. “Wha—"</p><p>“Shhh,” Kageyama whispered, eyes still glued on the door as he took a step back. “You hear that? It’s getting closer.”</p><p> </p><p>With everyone quiet they could hear another floorboard creak, this time coming from the hallway just outside and slowly making its way closer, louder and heavier with each step until it stopped right in front of the door. The shadow shown from the gap underneath the door was way bigger to just be one person—</p><p>The doorknob twisted and slammed open.</p><p>What stood in the doorway wasn’t Kenma’s crew, nor a homeless person, nor the town’s wandering kids.</p><p> </p><p>What stood in the doorway wasn’t even human at all.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Lifull Home’s is an actual app that serves as a real estate and housing portal site, with databases of over 4 million properties in Japan. You can contact realtors about any properties you like and search info around stations, cities, to contracting and moving. I just think it’s neat.<br/>Oh and by the way, for the record Jun is a random original character made to fill the role of Kenma’s shooting crew so he doesn’t hold much importance in this fic… <s>or does he?</s></p><p>Question everything. Come spiral with me.</p><p>(What do you think of the story so far? Not to sound vain but in all honesty feedbacks really do fuel me so comments and constructive criticism are always welcome!)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Blue Demon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In a moment of dissociation, Kenma found that the monster wasn’t as blue as its name suggested. Its skin looked grey and ashen, maybe a bit purplish, its hairless limbs twisted awkwardly and slender fingers tipped with yellowing claws. Its eyes were a bulging black mass that seem to bore into Kenma’s entire being, leaving no room to speculate what the hell it was thinking— whether it was even capable of thought at all. When its mouth parted open to reveal its jagged teeth Kenma remembered that one episode of a cage diving documentary where the diver was swimming inches away from a shark’s mouth with only steel bars separating the two, but Kenma didn’t even have that; he had maybe five large steps between him and the towering creature, five large steps that could easily translate to mere seconds left of his life if he doesn’t get himself moving and <em>oh my god the monster is moving</em>—</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama threw a mannequin head at the monster.</p><p> </p><p>“Kenma-san! Fucking run!”</p><p>The creature halted and shifted its attention elsewhere— only three large steps away from Kenma, four from Kuroo, eight from Hinata and Bokuto, and five from Kageyama with pieces of broken glass in between them, Kageyama who was staring back at Kenma, <em>glaring</em>, demanding him to move but why the hell won’t his legs move already?!</p><p>The monster moved again, and Kageyama broke eye contact from Kenma to yell something to someone else and, almost as if snapping awake from a hazy daydream, Kenma felt someone sweeping him off of his feet.</p><p> </p><p>They took off running.</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto and Hinata were faster and Kuroo had the disadvantage of Kenma’s weight in his arms, but Kageyama hovered close to them, looking over his shoulders to monitor the monster’s movements. They heard a hard thud up ahead and Hinata call to them from the entrance hall.</p><p>“The door’s locked!“</p><p>“Kuroo, help me bust this door open—“</p><p>“No time for that! It’s coming!” Kageyama grabbed Kuroo by his shirt and yanked him away from the entrance hall, pointing at the monster that was already outside the kitchen door and coming up fast. “Head down the hall! There’s a bathroom you can lock from the inside. Round the corner, first door to the right. Go!”</p><p>“How did you know—“ Kuroo began, but Kageyama already yanked him again to follow up the stairs. With Kenma quite literally shutting down in his arms Kuroo had no choice but to follow and have faith that Kageyama knew where he was going.</p><p> </p><p>They soon reached the second floor where they faced two doors and a corridor leading opposite from the staircase. Without slowing down, Kageyama dashed to the right door and twisted the handle. To their utmost relief, it clicked open and Kuroo darted inside, Kageyama soon following. Kageyama locked the door twice, wedging a wooden chair up the handle for good measure.</p><p>Slinging his bag off, Kageyama swiftly handed him a water bottle. Kuroo gladly accepted, piecing together that Kageyama never got to put it down before the monster barged in. But that lucky coincidence didn’t matter right now. Kuroo looked around for a place to put Kenma down, while also taking the opportunity to scan the place.</p><p>It was a bedroom, with several cabinets filled with books, a study desk and a chair, an armoire, and a bed on the side with white bedsheets. Kuroo gingerly settled Kenma on the bed to observe the state he was in.</p><p> </p><p>It was as if Kenma was retreating inside of himself, disconnected even from Kuroo’s soft voice as he helped him gulp down some water in efforts to regain his bearings. And though the circumstances were far from what Kuroo could deal with himself right now, the sight of Kenma breaking down in front of him was familiar enough that he knew exactly what to do and say. It was such a familiar sight that he could almost see the thoughts and overanalizing running through his childhood friend’s head like a film rolling behind his own eyes.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What the fuck was that thing?! This can’t be a sick prank, can it? How did it get in here? Has it always been in here? Oh my god, was this why Jun hasn’t answered his calls? Was his crew okay? Where’s Shouyou and Bokuto?—</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Kuroo had to make do with that familiarity for now.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry I had to pick you up like that, I know you don’t like being manhandled,” Kuroo began, smoothing out the wrinkles in Kenma’s shirt. “But it’s okay now, Kenma. Just breathe with me, four counts in, hold for three, out for seven. Here,” Kuroo slowed his own breaths and was happy to notice that Kenma followed his lead. “Good, that’s it. You’re safe, we’re safe. It’s over now.”</p><p>“No, it’s not,” Kageyama whispered back through gritted teeth, and Kuroo inwardly cursed at his ever-present lack of tact. “It hasn’t even begun.”</p><p>“Dude!” Kuroo cut him off. “Not helping...!”</p><p>Kageyama snapped back to look at Kuroo as if he just remembered there were other people in the room with him before mumbling a quick apology. He must be more shaken than Kuroo initially thought, rambling nonsense like that. Kuroo made a mental note to check back on his state of mind later.</p><p>Kuroo shook his head. “Why didn’t we hide with Hinata and Bokuto anyway?”</p><p>“The bathroom was small,” was Kageyama’s only answer, but when he eventually noticed Kuroo was still looking at him expectantly, he quickly added, “and it was already following us, the monster, and I thought we had better chances up here. Hinata and Bokuto should be safe for now, at least.”</p><p> </p><p>As if on que, the floorboards outside creaked heavily. Someone, <em>something</em>, much heavier than an average person was walking closer. Kuroo held his breath as a looming shadow appeared under the door. It tried for the knob, but when a rattle wouldn’t open the door, the thing pounded in frustration. Silence filled the room as they didn’t dare to move. Kenma choked down a sob.</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, just as quickly as it came, the footsteps outside picked up again, heading back down the stairs from whence it came.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s going back downstairs.”</p><p>Kageyama said that in a tone of relief, but something about the way he said it didn’t sit right with Kuroo. Nonetheless, he refocused all of his attention to get Kenma to calm down some.</p><p>Apparently, those footsteps were the final nail that pulled Kenma back to reality. The detachment that Kenma had been hiding behind was slowly failing him. With it gone, he began to experience the overwhelming sense of dread in its full. Blood pounded in his ears. His eyes throbbed. The absence of ambience only worked to amplify every little creak, every shift of fabric, to the point that he could’ve sworn he heard laughing in the distance, mocking what little control he had over his own body and mind. He felt trapped.</p><p>“I should’ve done more research… Sh- should’ve just said n- no… if I- if I hadn’t…”</p><p>“No no no, hey, don’t think that way. This is nobody’s fault.” Kuroo scrambled to remain in Kenma’s retreating field of vision. “Focus on something else. Can you tell me five things you can see?”</p><p>Kenma squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on his breathing. Slowly, he opened his eyes again. “My hair… hands,” he shakily began, his vision bounded upwards and met Kageyama’s who fidgeted a distance away, “…Kageyama, um… the door,” <em>the door that separated them with a monster, the door would not hold if it chose to break it down</em>, but Kenma’s eyes met with Kuroo’s and he caught himself from spiraling this time. “… your face.”</p><p>A soft smile appeared on Kuroo’s face that, to its credit, did a good job stemming the wave of panic that was washing over. “Good, that’s five. Now tell me four things you can touch.”</p><p>Kenma’s hands absentmindedly felt around for things to grab. “cloth- no, bedsheets?” Kuroo nodded encouragingly, putting a feathery weight on Kenma’s palm. Kenma’s heart got quieter— or at least it felt less like it wanted to break through his ribs. “Your hand, my clothes… and this annoying sticky feeling from sweat.”</p><p> </p><p>They continued down the line, listing three things he could hear (<em>your voice, my voice, the fucking creaking</em>), two things he could smell (<em>sweat and your awful cologne</em>), and finally one thing he could taste (<em>I don’t know, bile? Or cold water, that works too</em>). It took time, but when all was done, Kenma’s chest had eased some and the rushing sound of blood had dwindled away until he could no longer hear them. Kenma heaved a long sigh and plopped down fully onto the bed.</p><p> </p><p>Kuroo handed Kenma the water bottle again as he worked on sorting his own thoughts. Nobody saw anything weird when they checked this place yesterday. They arrived maybe fifteen, twenty minutes ago. Went straight to the kitchen, heard something from upstairs, then some plates broke— was that what caught the thing’s attention? What was that thing earlier? That can’t be the actual blue demon, can it? Had the townsfolk really been casually living with an actual fucking monster all this time?</p><p> </p><p>His mind was caught in a frenzy and he might as well be on his way to breaking down himself but then he stopped when something from downstairs caught his attention. It wasn’t heavy footsteps or screams, thankfully, but it was someone speaking, <em>arguing</em>. Laughing.</p><p> </p><p>Was that... Hoshiumi’s voice?</p><p> </p><p>“Is Kenma okay now? Kuroo-san?”</p><p>“Huh?” Kuroo’s head turned back to Kageyama, distracted. “Uh, yeah. Give him a few more minutes and he’ll be fine.”</p><p>Kageyama nodded, then slumped back in deep thought. His hand was on his book, flipping around the pages in search of something, perhaps a mere distraction from the present. “That was a really close one. I don’t know what’ll happen if this room was locked.”</p><p>“Which reminds me,” Kenma decided to pipe up, “how <em>did</em> you know this place wasn’t locked in the first place?”</p><p>Kageyama shrugged, not looking up. “Just a lucky guess.”</p><p>Kenma and Kuroo shared disturbed glances. While it was true that none of them had any better ideas at the time and the situation could’ve been a lot worse if it weren’t for Kageyama’s quick directions, they couldn’t process the possibility that they had unknowingly gambled their lives on pure luck and coincidence.</p><p> </p><p>Kuroo cleared his throat, dispelling the thought. “What about you, Kageyama? Are you okay? You must be pretty shaken, too.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fine.”</p><p> </p><p>He wasn’t fine, that much was obvious. Beads of sweat were still clinging on his face and neck, his hair hung in disheveled locks over his haggard countenance and the fingers flipping over the pages were twitching. He and Kenma might look worn out, but Kageyama looked downright exhausted. Perhaps he meant with all things considered, he could be worse. Kuroo has yet to master Hinata’s famous Tobio-Lingo, after all.</p><p>“You know you can talk about it if you want. This situation we’re in is shitty, but nobody has to deal with this alone.”</p><p>Kageyama turned to look at Kuroo, <em>really</em> look this time, as if searching for something, perhaps a catch, an exception to what Kuroo intended to be a simple assurance, but nonetheless Kuroo pulled the most convincing sincere expression he could muster and eventually Kageyama relented.</p><p>“… Thank you.”</p><p> </p><p>There was an inexplicable weight there, but Kuroo didn’t have time to indulge in the enigma of self-expression that was Kageyama Tobio— mainly because Kageyama already picked himself back up and started up the door in alarming spontaneity. “I’m going back out, you stay here and protect Kenma-san.”</p><p> </p><p>Even Kenma jolted up, “Wait, what—“</p><p>“I’ll bring Hinata and Bokuto-san back here. Lock the door once I’m out,—“</p><p>“You can’t be serious.”</p><p>“—and open the door <em>only</em> when you’re sure who’s on the other side. Three knocks means it’s me.”</p><p>Kuroo hissed in a panic. “We don’t know whether that thing is still lurking out there, and besides, Bokuto probably got Hinata to a safe spot already!”</p><p>“Yeah, <em>for now</em>. I have to make sure they <em>stay</em> safe.”</p><p>“Dude, this is no time to play hero...!” But even before Kuroo finished his sentence, Kageyama was already halfway out the door.</p><p>“I’m counting on you. Keep this place safe and just wait for me.”</p><p> </p><p>He then dashed away and disappeared down the staircase. Kuroo cursed as he shut the door and locked it.</p><p> </p><p>Just after Kuroo’s spiel about how nobody should deal with this alone. He can never understand whatever’s inside Kageyama’s head.</p><p> </p><p>Kenma ran a hand through his hair, worry clear in his voice. “Should we run after him?”</p><p>Kuroo thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Kageyama is right, someone’s got to keep a safe point while he gets the others. Besides, we’ll only make for a bigger target if all of us went together.” Kageyama was smarter than people give him credit for; considering things, he must’ve figured it out himself that out of three of them he was the better pick for venturing out to get the others.</p><p>“I just wish he gave us enough time to talk it through.” Kenma sighed, expression halfway between anger and helplessness. “Let’s just trust that Kageyama knows what he’s doing.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>They did not hear the monster rounding up the corner to their hiding spot. In fact, they only heard the heavy footsteps thumping away to the opposite direction and up the stairs.</p><p> </p><p>That didn’t make Hinata any calmer, however.</p><p> </p><p>His hands were shaking, sweat pouring nonstop and tears muddled his vision. The fear of having his best friends getting shredded by that monster—<em>what was that thing anyway?</em>—but no, he knew he had to stop thinking about it lest the situation gets worse. Calm down, calm down.</p><p>“Where’s Kageyama?” he asked to himself, voice small and muffled by his knees from crouching down on his hiding spot between a cabinet and a sink. Bokuto was kneeling in front of him, and he tried his best to push away the image that he’s out in the open and if the monster did manage to get in then Bokuto would have nowhere to hide.</p><p>“He’s probably with the others,” Bokuto offered, his boisterous flare all but forgotten as he tried to keep Hinata from having a downright meltdown. “I saw Kuroo running up the stairs when we round the hallway, he was carrying Kenma too. Kageyama should be with them.”</p><p>With the knowledge that the monster also went upstairs, that reasoning was not as assuring as Bokuto believed it was. <em>But this is not the time to be paranoid</em>, Hinata shook his head and tried to regain his composure. “What do we do now…?”</p><p>Bokuto plopped himself to the floor to get to Hinata’s eye level, wreaking his head for some comforting words, something Akaashi would say in a situation like this—</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Thank god Akaashi didn’t have to be stuck in a place like this too.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Focus! He’s got to focus.</p><p>“Regroup, of course. Find everyone, think of a way to kick down the front door, get out alive.” He stopped for a moment, then spoke again with his lips curled upwards. “Then hopefully we get to sue the owner and also burn this place to the ground. I’m taking dibs on the bulldozer, by the way. You can have the crane thingy with the wrecking ball, what’s the word for it again? Kuroo might also want it though so you better take dibs quickly.”</p><p>Hinata snorted. “That’s a solid plan…”</p><p>Bokuto beamed. “It is, isn’t it?” That smile was short-lived though, as he got back up and crept to the door. Cracking the door open the tiniest bit, he tried to look around the hallway.</p><p> </p><p>The creature was nowhere in sight, they could make a run for it. To where exactly, neither of them knew. But their friends might be hurt out there and they’ll be damned if they didn’t try to reach out and help.</p><p> </p><p>“We should move,” Bokuto said, voicing his thoughts. He looked away from the door and immediately regretted proposing such an idea when Hinata was still so high-strung. “Hey, buddy, you alright?”</p><p>“What do we…” Hinata gulped in an effort to steady his voice, “…what do we do if the monster finds us?”</p><p>Bokuto put his hand on his chin and pondered. Right. They’d need a weapon at least. And of course, Hinata needed more time to calm down or else he’d dissolve into a panicking mess right in the middle of the hallways. “Let’s look around for something we can use first.”</p><p>Hinata nodded and gingerly set out to look over the other section of the room separated by a wall and an archway, while Bokuto crouched back down and begin rummaging through the cubby holes under the sink. He only found a rubber duck, a can of hairspray, some hair pins, a leather brown bomber jacket with number 50 on the backside (whose jacket? He wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that), some towels, an old magazine and… food wrappers? It looked like it came from a fast-food chain. “There’s no fast-food place anywhere near here though. I wonder how long this thing’s been here,” Bokuto wondered aloud.</p><p>Taking the bomber jacket out to inspect it, he noticed a weight on its pocket. He shoved his hand into the pocket and fished out what turned out to be a collection of American dimes and quarters. Now why would you need these in Japan? His mind started constructing a terrifying scenario where the owner of this jacket was a lost tourist who travelled alone and had the morbid misfortune of taking refuge in a place like this when Hinata called out in barely above a whisper, “Uhh, Bokuto-san?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“This is gonna sound crazy, but do you have spare change for the toilet vending machine?”</p><p>“For the <em>what?</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto peeked into the portion of the bathroom that held only the toilet to see Hinata kneeling over the toilet bowl. It was <em>glowing.</em></p><p> </p><p>Okay, maybe not glowing. But the top of the toilet was lighting up, and as Bokuto crept closer to get a better look he realized it looked like a tiny vending machine.</p><p>Bokuto shook his head in astonishment. This mansion has a fucking <em>monster</em> running around, so he supposed anything was possible here.</p><p>“My wallet is in my bag, but I did find these.” Bokuto uncurled his fingers to show his newly-found coins. He looked at the curious vending machine. It didn’t seem to have any labels nor instructions on it, not for prices or items provided or anything. Only a slot, a rectangular slot for the coins, and some buttons with faded and barely readable markings. “Do you think…?”</p><p>“Go for it.”</p><p>Bokuto pushed a nickel into the coin slot and pressed a random number. When it did nothing, he pushed another coin in. Then suddenly a tired old whirring sound came from inside the vending machine, followed by a soft thud.</p><p> </p><p>Hinata warily reached down into the slot, pulling out something sealed in a plastic pouch. He tore the wrapper open to reveal a cheap lighter.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey that’s actually perfect,” Bokuto quickly said when he saw the disappointment on Hinata’s face, “I found a can of hairspray earlier. We can totally make a flamethrower.”</p><p>“Do you think that’ll be enough?”</p><p>“Absolutely. Fire will scare ‘em off, at least. I’ve seen Kuroo make make one, you just need to get the lighter close to the spray thingy, and it shoots quite far too.”</p><p>Hinata’s face lit up again and Bokuto inwardly sighed in relief. “Wanna try again and see what else this thing carries?”</p><p> </p><p>And so they spent the next five minutes pressing random buttons and slotting coins into the machine. By the time their miniscule pile of coins were gone, they had an abundance of beer and rice balls piling on the dry bathroom tiles, their faces in various stages of bewilderment.</p><p> </p><p>Before Hinata got to wonder if any of these were edible, Bokuto had already unwrapped a rice ball and popped one into his mouth. <em>It’s not like it came out of the actual toilet anyways, right?</em> Bokuto reasoned between bites. It tasted decent, with generous serving of tuna and mayo filling. The only complaint he could think of is that the rice ball was cold. And a bit dry.</p><p>Who in their right mind puts perishable foods in a toilet vending machine?</p><p>“How are we even going to bring these...” Hinata pondered, hands counting their bounty. Bokuto whipped around for pockets, and upon finding none, resorted in wearing the bomber jacket he found and stuffed its many pockets with rice balls. Hinata didn’t ask where he found it. “Uh, okay, I guess that solves it. Should we-” Hinata inhaled, now more determined, “-should we get going now?”</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto offered him an encouraging grin.</p><p>Hinata returned it with a tight-lipped smile. It wasn’t as convincing as Bokuto would’ve preferred, but that would have to do for now.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I stuck with the original <a href="https://hetaoni.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mansion">Hetaoni floorplan</a> for the time being, but perhaps there will be some changes in some floors as the story deviates further from the original plot? The underground in particular has so much potential, and there's really nothing stopping me from adding an entirely new floor into the floorplan... We'll see how it goes!<br/>As always, let me know what you think about the story in the comments! :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. There's More Coming</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It’s nearing exam week and I figured updating the next chapter early would help me stay on top of things. Hope it doesn't look too rushed (ಥ﹏ಥ)<br/>I wanted to write that Bokuto thinks abt what Akaashi would do in these situations and then act on those things, but then again Bokuto is already very intuitive on his own and implying that he only acts a certain way through Akaashi’s influence would maybe tokenize that so I ended up dropping the idea. Bokuto has galaxy brain, change my mind!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After a short discussion, Hinata and Bokuto agreed to check the kitchen and look for anything useful to bring before going anywhere else. There was a good chance that the others might choose to go back to the kitchen too, they reasoned, since it was the last place where all of them were together. They trekked carefully to the entrance hall, ears constantly in search of footsteps, or creaks of the floorboards, or anyone’s voices, anything to pinpoint where the rest of their friends were located.</p><p> </p><p>Still they heard nothing.</p><p> </p><p>“This one wouldn’t budge either,” Bokuto sighed as he let go of the knob of the first door to the right hallway. Honestly, he didn’t know what he was expecting. Maybe he had hoped that it was a fluke when the entrance door wouldn’t budge the first time, that he somehow wasn’t able to open it because everyone was panicking so much. Now that he’d checked every and all doors they’d passed though, it was clear that this was an increasingly serious problem.</p><p>Thinking about it himself wouldn’t help much, Bokuto decided. He should move on to other, more useful things.</p><p>“Only one out of three doors in the left hallway was unlocked, and this one doesn’t open either, so we gotta determine which ones we <em>can</em> open and hide in first before exploring a new area— just in case, you know. Just in case. Do you think the others would open the door if we knock?”</p><p>Hinata was too preoccupied in his own thoughts to give any worthwhile reply. But he found an odd sense of comfort in filling the void, so Bokuto kept talking anyway. “At any rate, we have no choice but to check one door at a time. Man, there’s a lot of ground to cover.”</p><p> </p><p>The door to the kitchen was already wide open, so Bokuto walked in, Hinata following cautiously behind. The room was just the same as when they left it, save for some toppled mannequins and lightbulb shards from one of Kenma’s fallen lighting props.</p><p>Bokuto swiftly grabbed his bag and moved towards the kitchen counter, unloading piles of his folded clothes from the bag to lighten it. He set off to fill his bag with anything useful, they don’t know when they can come back to restock.</p><p>Water bottles, but not too big or else he’d have a hard time running. And food, how long would Kuroo’s snacks last all five of them? Ah, but he’d have to leave the ones with loud wrappers lest he’d draw the monster’s attention to himself, so no chips. He moved all the rice balls they’ve accumulated from his jacket into the bag, these shouldn’t make too much noise. All the phones they left earlier in case they can reconnect somehow; though really he only found his own phone and Kenma’s which was lying on the floor. He’ll throw a charger in there too. Did they bring flashlights? Sure the lights were on for now, but you never know with these things. They’ll also need extra batteries in case the ones in the flashlights run out…</p><p> </p><p>Ugh, this was developing to be more and more like a horror game. If it was any other circumstances Bokuto would’ve loved this kind of situation (him and Kuroo have had their fair share of carnival haunted houses adventures, after all), but after that encounter with a real-life horror game-looking monster, he’s not sure if he had the stomach for these genres anymore.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll see if they’ve got anything useful in these shelves. Hinata, go find the first aid kit. We brought those, right?”</p><p>Hinata nodded and began to rummage their equipment.</p><p> </p><p>Something dark and glinting caught Hinata’s attention as he walked past it. He crouched down to a pile of broken plates that laid on the floor, halfway swept onto the dustpan. He gingerly reached down to grasp the object, tilting his head as it was revealed to be a brass key. Was that there before?</p><p>“Bokuto-san,” Hinata called out, showing the key.</p><p>Bokuto looked up from the shelves he was rummaging through. “Good find! We’ll check if that goes to the front door.” In turn, Bokuto held up a kitchen knife and a metal pipe which he found on one of the bottom shelves. The length of the knife wasn’t bigger than his own palm, and the metal pipe had a questionable stain and smelled of rust, but at least it was something. “You don’t have a weapon of choice yet, right? Which one do you want?”</p><p>Hinata looked at both objects as he scratched his head. A knife that size should be useful for a wide range of things, but it won’t provide enough range in terms of offense; especially considering the length of his own arms. The metal pipe looked decently long, but he doubted he could swing it hard enough to make any considerable damage— at least not to a creature they barely knew the full strength of. “Uh, can I have the flamethrower?”</p><p>“Sure!” Bokuto grinned, tucking the knife safely into his bag before fishing out the hairspray and lighter from his jacket. Bokuto handed them to Hinata and they both went back to work—</p><p> </p><p>Their search went to an abrupt halt when they heard a series of stomping from somewhere upstairs.</p><p> </p><p>“Shit, were we too loud?” His grip on the metal pipe tightened. Hinata pocketed the brass key and quickly headed to Bokuto’s side, a box of first aid kit in hand.</p><p>It sounded like running, each pounding step reverberated, echoed, until it faded away in a distance. Those steps sounded too light and quick for something so large— how fast was that creature, really? Or was that... a person’s footsteps?—</p><p>Okay wait, now <em>those</em> were definitely heavy ones. Its strident shuffling almost echoed in the contrast of total silence, followed by a series of something breaking. Knocked over? Ran through? Both of them could only imagine as the sounds approached ever closer.</p><p>“It might just walk past us,” Hinata whispered in wishful thinking—</p><p> </p><p>It did, eventually. But not before walking all the way across the hallway to the door until they could practically <em>feel</em> the monster’s presence on the other side, seperated by a piece of wood that’s only as sturdy as its hinges. Both Hinata and Bokuto held their breath. It stood there for a while; heavens knew why it never tried for the unlocked knob but they could only thank the heavens it didn’t. Instead it turned its heel and dragged itself to the other side of the mansion.</p><p>Hinata slumped to the floor and Bokuto had to hold onto the counter to keep himself upright. The anticipation was nerve-wracking. All they wanted to do was to hole up somewhere safe, lock everything and stay there until rescue came.</p><p> </p><p>But they were not safe there. Eventually they had to move.</p><p> </p><p>Not wasting time to fully shake off their nerves, they headed upstairs. Looking around, they could see two hallways up ahead and a corridor right beside the stairs that led to more hallways behind them. They went towards the hallway that was closest to them, making a turn to the left corridor. Only two rooms, both locked, none of which Hinata’s key fit.</p><p>“Kuroo-san, are you in there?” Hinata called in front of each doors, hopefully softly enough not to attract any unwanted attention. “Kenma, Kuroo-san?”</p><p>There was no answer so they backtracked to the right corridor which turned out only had one room. They tried for the knob, locked. Tried the key, it only got halfway in. They were preparing to head to the opposite end of the corridor when Hinata spotted a shadow flicker at the corner of his vision. Turning his head towards the bottom of the stairs, Hinata caught a glimpse of something large, grey, and moving.</p><p> </p><p>The monster was <em>right there,</em> dragging its limbs as it aimlessly roamed the foyer with its back facing the staircase. It groaned from time to time and its claws dragged along the parquet floor creating shallow dents and distinct scratching sounds.</p><p> </p><p>How did neither of them notice it sooner?</p><p> </p><p>Hinata signaled for Bokuto’s attention and they both gawked, unsure where to move. The monster hasn’t noticed them yet, <em>thank god,</em> but that won’t last for long if they just stayed frozen in place like this. The doors they’ve checked previously were all locked, there’s the other hallway but it’s an unexplored territory and there’s no telling whether they’d find a place to hide there. Hinata’s hand grew sweaty as he gripped the can of hairspray tighter, a finger already on the nozzle anxiously anticipating usage—</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Click.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>The faintest sound of a door unlocking made both Hinata and Bokuto jump. The monster grunted, picking at grout on a corner, thankfully not noticing anything amiss. The door behind them creaked open ever so slightly, and Hinata almost collapsed from relief when his eyes met with hazel ones from behind the door.</p><p>“Get in before it sees you,” Kuroo ordered.</p><p>Bokuto and Hinata silently scrambled in and Kuroo locked the door behind them. They waited for signs of the monster coming after them, but eventually found none. A few more moments passed in complete stillness before Hinata let himself slump to the floor, pressing a palm on his chest where it felt like it would burst, and Bokuto crouched down beside him, laughing shakily as he patted his shoulder to help calm him down.</p><p> </p><p>“That was close.” Kuroo sighed from his spot right beside the door. “What happened? Why didn’t you stay in your hiding spot?”</p><p>“We wanted to make sure you guys were okay,” Bokuto answered, since Hinata was still recollecting himself. “We think we saw the monster going upstairs and, well…”</p><p>“And you just went here where the danger is?” Kenma asked incredulously, shifting on the bed as he eyed Hinata and Bokuto for any visible injuries. Both of them looked okay, if a little shaken, which was a relief.</p><p>“I have a weapon, though! Went on a search for it and everything.” Bokuto defended as he held out his metal pipe, “Hinata has one too.”</p><p>Kuroo stared at the hairspray Hinata was holding close to his chest, “Is that a—“ but upon catching Bokuto’s sheepish grin he put two and two together and he shook his head in amusement. “You know what, I’m just glad my practical chem lectures has come to fruition.”</p><p>Bokuto grinned. “I’m so glad you’re a nerd.”</p><p>“At least you listen to me.”</p><p>“Always, bro.” Bokuto snapped his fingers to get back on track and looked around the room. “Anyways, where’s—"</p><p> </p><p>But Hinata beat him to it. “Where’s Kageyama?”</p><p> </p><p>And that’s the million-dollar question. Kuroo and Kenma stared at each other in shared concern. They feared something like this would happen.</p><p> </p><p>Hinata anxiously fidgeted under the hesitant stares.</p><p> </p><p>“To be honest we thought he was with you guys until just now,” Kuroo said eventually.</p><p>Bokuto frowned. “But I saw him going upstairs with you?”</p><p>“We hid together, yeah, but a while after that he said he’s going to make sure you guys were okay and so he took off before we could stop him. It’s been, what, about twenty minutes now.”</p><p>“How the hell did you manage to let him do that—” Hinata started, what little relief they had completely forgotten.</p><p>“We didn’t run into each other though,” Bokuto rubbed his eyes in an effort to stay focused, nipping the blame game in the bud. He laid a hand on Hinata’s shoulder before his mind could begin to spiral. “Unless he went to the third floor I don’t see why he haven’t already…”</p><p>“But why would he go upstairs?” Hinata countered, burying his face in his hands.</p><p>Bokuto shook his head helplessly. “I can’t think of any other explanation why we haven’t found him yet.”</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto did, as a matter of fact. There was another, equally probable, explanation. The one that involved the monster outside and Kageyama’s unreliability to really think things through in certain situations. Looking at the rest of them, Bokuto figured everyone had also reached the same conclusion as he did.</p><p>But if <em>that</em> happened, surely they would’ve already seen traces when him and Hinata were still outside? Be it signs of struggle, claw marks, blood splatters…</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama, that jerk. Where did you go?</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto forced himself off of the dreary train of thought. He didn’t want to remotely entertain the idea any more than he already has, no matter how much it nagged on his conscious. A plan, they need to form a plan.</p><p> </p><p>“You know how normally in movies there’s the part where the group splits up—”</p><p>“We’re <em>not</em> using horror movies as blueprint, Bokuto.” Kenma said firmly.</p><p>“No no no, trust me, I know it sounds stupid, but—“ Bokuto grimaced, “— come on, don’t tell me you haven’t thought of it yourself, Kenma. Don’t you think it’s the most logical thing to do right now?”</p><p> </p><p>Kenma did; in fact he had been thinking of the same thing since Kageyama took off on his own. But just thinking about whatever dire circumstances the former Karasuno setter had probably gotten himself into that hindered him from reaching anyone else, Kenma could never allow Bokuto to follow the same path.</p><p> </p><p>Before Kenma could argue, Kuroo helpfully spoke up. “We already figured that moving with too many people would make us a bigger target. That’s why neither of us ran after Kageyama in the end.”</p><p>“Okay yeah, that, but also, we need a safe place we can get back to.” Bokuto added. “We don’t know where Kageyama went, but if I were to find him injured out there, it’d be great help if there’s a base camp where we could rest up, you know?”</p><p>Kenma figured that too. Especially since this was the last place where Kageyama knew Kuroo and Kenma were, not keeping it as a base would be moronic. He still didn’t like the sound of splitting up no matter what, though. “So you’re saying we’re not actually splitting up, we’re simply taking turns investigating outside, is that it?”</p><p>“Exactly!” Bokuto exclaimed, but winced when it came out a tad louder than he intended. After a moment of checking that nothing outside heard them, he continued, “And I’m not saying anyone should go alone either. We can pair up, establish a system where we get back here every hour or something so the guys that are staying here knows we’re safe. We can also switch every now and then, so everyone has time to rest up.”</p><p> </p><p>Silence settled over the room for a moment, save for the soft ticking of the clock by the shelves.</p><p> </p><p>Eventually, it was Bokuto who breaks it.</p><p>“Oh, by the way, I think you guys should also know this. Hinata and I, we uh- when we’re still in the kitchen, we heard a bunch of footsteps from upstairs. A lot of stuff breaking, too. I’m guessing it wasn’t you guys?”</p><p>Kuroo shook his head. “Beside Kageyama, none of us even left this room, but we didn’t hear anything from here. Was it the monster?”</p><p>“No way, it’s way too light. We heard the monster coming soon after that, and it was definitely different.” This time it was Hinata who spoke up, after finally calming down some. Bokuto nodded in encouragement.</p><p>“I don’t wanna think this way but what if it was...“ Bokuto didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t want to think too much of it; the irrational part of him believed that if he did then it’d come true and even though Bokuto knew how silly that sounded he would rather not take any chances in a place as messed up as this. “There’s also a small chance that other people are stuck in this mansion too. Like your crew, or the townsfolk.”</p><p>Kenma seemed to be deep in thought, “... I did hear other things, yeah. I was out of it so I thought it’s just my head messing with me but— no, that must be it.”</p><p>Kuroo furrowed his brows. If Kenma heard it too then the voices he himself heard just before might not be a product of his imagination either. “There’s someone else in the mansion? I- but if it’s not Kageyama then who exactly…“</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto didn’t have an answer to that, truthfully, but as he looked down to the brown sleeves of the bomber jacket that he wore, he knew that for better or worse these doors don’t stay locked forever. Silence fell over the room once more as all of them mulled over their circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>That is, until they heard voices.</p><p> </p><p>People talking, arguing, laughing, just down the hallways. Was that Hoshiumi? A jab of laughter followed the barely coherent conversation and they were certain this time it was Atsumu talking. How did they not notice them coming up the stairs?</p><p>Kenma’s head whipped back at Kuroo. He heard it too. “Right... they’re supposed to arrive too, weren’t they...” Kuroo murmured to himself, anxiety steadily rising.</p><p>As the loud chattering continued on in blissful ignorance Hinata became more and more anxious. “They don’t know about the monster. Why the hell are they so loud? The monster was just downstairs, if they keep at it then the monster will...”</p><p> </p><p>A loud crash was heard on the other side of the hallway and suddenly they doubted if it was laughter after all.</p><p> </p><p>A scream. Cracked floorboards. Those definitely weren’t laughter.</p><p> </p><p>“How did we not hear them walk past us? We heard you guys come up, so why…” Another crash made Kenma jump, this time followed by a series of thumping footsteps. Kuroo’s feet bounced in aggravation. Where was Kageyama? Why hasn’t he hushed the group yet? Did he— no. He can’t be, can he...?</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I have to get them to safety.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Kenma picked up on the resolve in Kuroo’s face even before Kuroo himself was aware of what he was signing himself into. Kenma grabbed Kuroo by the collar before he could bolt through the door like he knew his childhood best friend would. “Take Bokuto with you. And a weapon.”</p><p>“Here! You can use this!” Hinata threw him the flamethrower.</p><p>Kuroo nodded appreciatively, then looked at Bokuto, who was gripping his metal pipe in anticipation. Traces of fear masked behind determination. “Watch my six?”</p><p>Bokuto grinned. “Always, bro. Now come on, there’s people we need saving.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As always, let me know what you think about the story in the comments! You can find me on <a href="https://twitter.com/AnotherBoredFa1"> twitter</a> if anyone’s interested in more of my HQ ramblings, or maybe we can just vibe in the void together :D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Questionable Tag-Alongs</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yet another day of updating earlier than schedule oof<br/>In my defense next week is gonna be ✨terrible✨ and I wanna have 1 (one) accomplishment before exams kick my ass-<br/>On another note, sometimes writing Atsumu and Aran means taking extra care on how their dialect transfers into written dialogues. Inarizaki-centric fanfic writers, how do you do it??<br/>Anyways, here's the <a href="https://hetaoni.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mansion">map of the mansion</a></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Atsumu didn’t expect any calls that day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>At least not from Hinata, who sounded hyperactive and probably a little drunk when he answered the call. Through a series of shrill giggles and what sounded more like slurred ramblings than anything coherent, Hinata explained that he and Kenma were going to do a livestream at the end of October. Something about a super important milestone that should be celebrated and he was wondering if Atsumu wanted in on it.</p>
<p>“It’s gonna be Halloween-themed, ‘course I’m goin’,” Atsumu said during a group call with anyone and everyone he could immediately rope in, which ended up being Yaku, Aran, Hoshiumi, Sakusa, Ushijima, and Iwaizumi. Apparently Hyakuzawa, Komori and Hakuba already had other things planned when Atsumu invited them, and no amount of persuasion nor bribery from Atsumu’s part would sway either of them into ditching their respective schedules. “The question is, are ya’ goin’?”</p>
<p>Aran laughed and Atsumu threw a hissy fit until eventually Aran and Yaku relented. “I don’t have anythin’ scheduled around that week. I guess it’ll be fun.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakusa expressed his fervent disapproval at first, citing inconvenience of traveling to a remote place and their busy schedules. Not to mention the fact that, though he familiar with Hinata and he was acquainted with Kuroo enough to refer to him as his colleague, some of them didn’t really have any connection with Kenma himself and crashing on a stream and party that’s celebrating something they had nothing to do with would be, frankly, impossibly awkward. But then Hoshiumi loudly asked who were already going which Atsumu replied with a list of names (that is: Kenma, Hinata, Kuroo, Kageyama, and himself) and Ushijima stated that he looked forward to the event that would strengthen their friendship bonds, and suddenly Sakusa’s refusal was all but forgotten.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was wonderous, really, how Ushijima’s words can affect the clean freak wing spiker.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Whatever power it was, it had led to all six of them crammed in a rented minivan with dollar store Halloween decorations, filing out onto the gravel walkway in front of an ominous-looking mansion. Six, because at the very last minute Iwaizumi decided to bail on them with some half-ass excuse that his family was coming over.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Atsumu whined the entire halfway through the trip, but after a hailstorm of arguing with Yaku and more time wasted reminding him that Iwaizumi will eventually join them later once everything’s settled on his part, he eventually shut up.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Atsumu shifted his weight to one foot, looking up at the poorly-illuminated mansion. Dark clouds hung overhead. “Any luck, Aran-kun?”</p>
<p>Aran shook his head. “I’d expected Kozume-kun wouldn’t answer any random number, but even Hinata-kun isn’t pickin’ up my calls.”</p>
<p>“I swear if this is a sick joke of yours, Atsumu…” Yaku grumbled as he unloaded some of their lighter baggage.</p>
<p>“I would never do anythin’ like that! They’re definitely here!” Atsumu defended, pointing at a car that was parked rather close to theirs. The plate number matched the one Kuroo sent them a day prior, he was certain they were in the right place. “The signal gets even worse here, no wonder they couldn’t answer.”</p>
<p>Sakusa casted a disinterested glance before looking back up at the mansion. “Should we just go in, then? I don’t see any doorbells.”</p>
<p>“It’s inappropriate to barge into someone else’s property without first announcing our presence—“ Ushijima began, but Hoshiumi’s loud laughter cut him off.</p>
<p>“Then we’ll just have to announce it loudly!” Hoshiumi boomed, already pulling the front door open with the hand that wasn’t holding a box of decorations, his bag slung on his shoulder. “Heyooo we’re here!”</p>
<p>Yaku and Aran exchanged glances in exasperation, having bonded over comradery of having to deal with loud personifications of chaos most of their high school years already (if not most of their lives). Atsumu only shrugged in feigned ignorance and followed suit, Ushijima trailing right behind. Sakusa got in last, closing the door behind him as he looked around.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Considering there were supposed to be a combination of Hinata and Kageyama who are known to cause a ruckus wherever they go and Kuroo and Bokuto who generally act as each other’s enabler, this place was awfully quiet.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This place has such a desolate feel… not bad. Could need a fake skeleton or two, though,” Aran commented as he put down their luggage.</p>
<p>“Where’s everybody?” Atsumu called out, his voice reverberating through the walls. No answer came.</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t we unload first?” Ushijima asked.</p>
<p>“Why unload now when we can do it later? I wanna go explore!” Hoshiumi said, already wandering over to the end of the left hallway. The three existing doors were closed shut, maybe he could check if they’re locked.</p>
<p>“It would be inconvenient to haul them later when we’re more tired than we already are, though.”</p>
<p>Ignoring Ushijima’s reasoning, Atsumu gave Hoshiumi a conspiratorial smile only he can pull off. “Great idea, Kourai-kun! I’m right behind ya!”</p>
<p>“Where are you going?! This isn’t your house! You can’t just go anywhere you please!” Yaku reprimanded.</p>
<p>“What do you suggest then, Yakkun? We don’t even know where the others are yet anyway, might as well have fun until we run into them.”</p>
<p>“I mean…”</p>
<p>Yaku crossed his arms, not bothering to address the nickname Atsumu gave him since it’d only give him satisfaction, and looked around. This mansion was large, certainly, almost intimidatingly so. This place looked to be in good shape for an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere; sure the white paint chipped and blistered here and there, and he noticed scratch marks on the floor from what he’d assume was the previous owner’s pet, but overall it was a fixer-upper. The atmosphere wasn’t particularly warm or welcoming either, but Yaku chalked it up to the foyer being devoid of furniture. It was a normal mansion, in every sense of the word.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Even so, he couldn’t help but to feel uneasy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I guess we do have to find them first,” Yaku thought for a moment before sighing in defeat. Hoshiumi and Atsumu were already cheering and making their way upstairs. “We’re going to explore the mansion a little bit. You guys coming?”</p>
<p>Aran glanced at the rest of the group, found that neither of them would care about whatever chaos those idiots will inevitably cause, then sigh. “I’ll go. I can’t let you deal with both of them alone.”</p>
<p>Yaku flashed him an appreciative smile, then turned at the remaining two. “Then it’s settled. Ushijima, Sakusa, you guys search the first floor and we’ll take the second floor. We’ll deal with unloading together later. If you find the others, uh,” Yaku halfway pointed at his phone before realizing the connection was practically nonexistent. God, he hoped that won’t create too much trouble for the stream, otherwise driving all the way here was a waste of time. “Just yell, I guess? I’ll make sure we won’t go too far.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Alright Atsumu, which door do you choose?” Already on the second floor, Yaku could hear Hoshiumi talk in a terrible attempt of a gameshow host voiceover. “Door number one? Door number two? Door number three? Or the next hallway?”</p>
<p>Atsumu snorted, pointing at the hallway opposite the stairs.</p>
<p>“Gosh, feeling adventurous tonight are we. Next hallway it is!” Hoshiumi continued to the hallway, a skip in his steps.</p>
<p>“Can you guys talk like normal people for once, geez,” Yaku scolded as he and Aran caught up to them. Hoshiumi laughed him off and Atsumu snickered, following closely behind as he observed the place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This place certainly wasn’t normal, Atsumu inwardly thought. Why did they have to insist on renting out a place like this? Why couldn’t they just do the livestream back at the office?—</p>
<p>Okay, yeah, Atsumu may have had a hand on ensuring they find a creepy place to stream by repeatedly mentioning haunted houses and Halloween-themed attractions to Hinata and peppering urban legends like the moth man or the Inunaki village in-between their conversations, but come on. They should know Atsumu was a bad influence by now. Hinata might not, but surely the rest of them would.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ugh, whatever. They can’t back down now, not after all that ass-flattening drive to get here.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The first room they entered was the only one on the right side of the hall. It was a bedroom, with an old-looking TV, a few bookshelves on the side, and two beds placed next to each other. Aran wandered over to the TV, wondering what it broadcasts when they don’t even get an inkling of a phone service. Hoshiumi threw himself onto one of the beds but immediately regretted that decision as he recoiled, choking on the fine layer of dust he had involuntarily disturbed.</p>
<p>“I don’t think—” Hoshiumi said between wheezes, “—that anyone have been here in a while.”</p>
<p>Yaku rolled his eyes as Atsumu laughed and helped Hoshiumi up. “Hurry up, let’s go look somewhere else.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They could hear a door slamming shut from outside, coming from the other side of the hall followed by heavy footsteps. “Hey look, we lured them out!” Hoshiumi said as he dusted himself off. “I’ll go greet them.”</p>
<p>“Don’t go knocking things over now you hear me!— ah, fuck it, I’m coming with you.” Yaku gave Aran a quick once over, entrusting Atsumu to him in a quick silent conversation before following Hoshiumi outside.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>None of them expected screaming.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ushijima and Sakusa wandered into what turned out to be small library, with a large wooden table, some chairs, and a few bookshelves. The door was locked, but it wasn’t like they did much to open it since the key to the room was already attached on the keyhole and all they had to do was twist it open. There was a portion of a wall on the right side of the room like a little island, narrowing out that part of the room into a sort of corridor. Strange choice of design if Sakusa thought about it, but it’s not like it’s his problem anyway.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The books in the library were written in different languages, they found. Sakusa randomly picked out one of the books and flipped it open. He should’ve checked the book title first though, because it was written in a language he didn’t understand and filled with illustration of curious plants he’d never seen before. The only ones he could read between the line of books had odd titles such as ‘Psychedelic Shamanism: Shamanic Use of Psychoactive Plants’. Sakusa absentmindedly passed the book to Ushijima who gladly accepted, walking away to what he’d assume was the reading area to sit and dutifully read through the book.</p>
<p>“The previous owner must’ve been very superstitious.” Sakusa commented to no one in particular, his fingers tracing over the shelves (there were no dust whatsoever, Sakusa realised when he recoiled his fingers. This place isn’t half bad by his standards). Shifting the weight of his backpack to his other shoulder, Sakusa read through the titles he could actually understand in mild amusement. “They must really be a fanatic. Look at all these titles. ‘The Egyptian Book of the Dead’? ‘Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds’? Hell, there’s even one titled ‘Handbook to Witchcraft and Necromancy’? Where did they get these?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Upon closer inspection Sakusa noticed indentations on the shelves, the wood a little paler where it had been damaged. He touched the roughness, piecing together what kind of large dog the previous owner must’ve had as a pet to get this large a scratch upon a shelf this high.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When he looked back, Ushijima was already busying himself with his own findings, back turned against Sakusa as he studied the handles of a long wooden sword.</p>
<p>“Is that... a bokken?” Sakusa asked as he walked over.</p>
<p>Ushijima nodded. “It looks worn out. Someone must’ve been practicing tirelessly with it. How admirable.”</p>
<p>Ushijima was set on starting a long spiel about the art of Kendo and his experiences practicing Kendo as a sport elective during high school but his words were interrupted by a sound of doors slamming from upstairs, followed by a series of yelling.</p>
<p>Yaku’s yelling? But it didn’t sound like nagging or reprimanding, in fact it sounded terrified, like a painful scream—</p>
<p>Then, Atsumu’s.</p>
<p>Sakusa and Ushijima exchanged bewildered glances. They both darted out and up the stairs without another word, thinking—hoping, perhaps, that the others only did something stupid, that nobody hurt themselves, that the others who arrived first must’ve pranked them and they got spooked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Instead, they found a monster.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Towering over Bokuto, who was apparently already in a fighting stance, was the strangest creature they’ve ever seen. Just what it was neither of them was entirely certain, but it stood perhaps seven feet tall, with ashy grey skin and long pointed dagger-like nails for fingers, and two large ink black eyes that frantically glanced back and forth from Bokuto to both Ushijima and Sakusa who just entered the scene. Not a few steps from them were Kuroo and Atsumu kneeling over Aran whose head was <em>bleeding</em>. Hoshiumi and Yaku were nowhere to be seen.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>What the fuck happened?</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bokuto noticed them coming. “Guys! Get the others to safety—"</p>
<p>“Bo watch out!” Kuroo yelled just as an arm swung at Bokuto. The ace barely managed to dodge. The creature struck down once more, but this time he was quick enough to block. The clash of claws and metal rang in the hallways. Bokuto swung far and the monster jumped back, creating a sufficient distance between them.</p>
<p>Bokuto looked over his shoulder, his eyes met with stunned Sakusa. “Don’t just stand there, Sakusa! Get them out of the way!”</p>
<p>Perhaps startled by how Bokuto addressed him, Sakusa finally broke out of a trance and quickly got to Aran, carefully helping him up. Ushijima, though still hasn’t fully grasped the situation, wasted no time to rush to Bokuto’s side, his hands clutching the wooden sword pointed defensively forward. Ushijima cut forward aiming for the monster’s torso but the creature struck down right away. He narrowly swerved to dodge.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Kuroo went over to help Atsumu up, but he swatted him off. “I’m okay. We gotta get outta here fast.”</p>
<p>Kuroo’s eyes flickered to Atsumu’s back, stiff and oozing blood from when the monster narrowly slashed him. He kept holding onto Atsumu anyway. “There’s a safe room near the stairs where you can hide—"</p>
<p>“What? No! we gotta get outta the house! The key to our car is with Aran but I’m sure I can drive just fine, Kourai-kun and Yakkun are probably already outside too—"</p>
<p>“That can’t be. The door is locked.”</p>
<p>“Well clearly that’s not true, we got in already,” Atsumu countered heatedly.</p>
<p>Kuroo shook his head, unable to stove off the frustration from his tone. He wanted to get the hell out of here as much as Atsumu did, to drag everyone downstairs with that glimmer of hope that the entrance door would be unlocked, but if the last few hours taught him anything, it’s that nothing is what it seemed. It’s dangerous to be blindly hopeful here. If the door turned out to be locked just like last time, they’d be sitting ducks with two injured people unable to run away.</p>
<p>“We need to get you to Kenma and the others. Sakusa,” Kuroo turned to the wavy-haired male who had Aran leaning to his shoulder for balance, “get them to the bedroom nearest to the stairs. Three knocks and Kenma will let you in.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakusa only managed a nod and Kuroo didn’t let Atsumu argue with him before charging to where the fight was, flamethrower pointed at the monster. Bokuto and Ushijima managed a few good blows but nothing seems to faze it.</p>
<p>Kuroo struck the match and sprayed—the flames were a lot shorter than he expected, but nevertheless the monster staggered backwards at the sight.</p>
<p>It yelped; or at least Kuroo assumed it was a yelp. The sound that came from the creature was guttural but also shrill, nothing he had ever heard before. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air as he inched closer to the monster, and it screamed even more before leaping forward and took everyone by surprise. But instead of attacking, the creature bounded forward with surprising agility and scurried away, disappearing up the stairs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And just like that, the fight was over.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Something within Kuroo wavered as he drew in a breath, half-focusing on the soot left on the floor from the fire. Something about the monster didn’t make sense…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You’re hurt,” Ushijima remarked, and only then did Kuroo notice a slight burn on his fingers. His hand must’ve gotten too close to the fire.</p>
<p>“Come on,” Bokuto started, “let’s get out of here before that thing changes its mind.”</p>
<p>So they made their way to the bedroom on the opposite hallway, Ushijima taking the lead. Bokuto lagged behind though, and he tapped Kuroo’s shoulder as he fell in step beside him. An unnerved expression painted his face. “Hey, Kuroo, was that… was that the same monster? It looked smaller than I remember…”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His uneasiness grew tenfold.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Dude, don’t joke about this right now,” Kuroo gulped. He knew Bokuto would not do something so ridiculous in this situation but still, “of course it’s the same monster! Otherwise...”</p>
<p>Otherwise, god knows how many more there are out there.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Did I really just write my first fight scene? And holy fuck writing all these different characters is really challenging my understanding of them, like what they do, how they talk, their mannerisms etc. The struggle is fueling me with burning passion! I shall not put anyone in a disservice by portraying them out of character! I will try my best!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Curiosities</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Exams really did kick my ass… This chapter is a bit shorter than usual, apologies for that! I’ll start posting every other week once I’m done with all due assignments (ಥ﹏ಥ)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Wind swept across the wooden plains laden with the promise of an approaching storm, stirring branches and sending leaves flying. Some found its way to the mansion’s windows, tapping at its glass as they collided. The tapping accompanied a series of footsteps echoing in the damp and unfamiliar hallway, along with the sound of water dripping ever so often in the distance. Someone, with dark hair and a light spring in his steps, appeared from around the corner. A hum travelled through the scarf engulfing his face, tunes of something soft and whimsical that didn’t have a place in the grim darkness surrounding him.</p><p>A flash of grey appeared on his peripherals. The stranger turned around to see, with glinting dark blue eyes, a set of enormous black eyes staring back at him. Almost humanoid under the dim lighting, the monster stood in the middle of the hallway blocking his path. It took a step closer, mouth opening to show jagged teeth—</p><p>The stranger extended an arm forward. The monster leaned down to his touch.</p><p>He smiled.</p><p>“This game is off to a good start, isn’t it?”</p><p> </p><p>He continued walking and the monster followed close behind, limbs dragging along the damp stone cold floor along the way. He sauntered into a study, not bothering to close the door. It knows not to come in places it shouldn’t be.</p><p>Inside, shelves lined the walls all the way to the ceiling with books of all sizes. On the wall opposite to it were cabinets upon cabinets filled to the brim with glass jars and various trinkets, each stuffed with miscellaneous powders and fluids. The ceiling light was the only thing illuminating the windowless office, it flickered and dimmed at strobe-like intervals. In the center of it all was a mahogany desk, its surface in a state of half organized clutter with stacks of scrolls and paperwork.</p><p>A figure sat behind the desk, peaceful and undisturbed, their body snuggly enwrapped between the bottle green cushions and blankets.</p><p>“He never likes it when I meddle, but...” he continued talking in a hushed tone, fingers tracing the wooden swirls of the desk. “...since he’s too stubborn to give up, that kid, how about we give him a reason to? How does that sound?”</p><p>The figure stayed peacefully still. A hand reached out to brush off lint from their old tweed jacket with a sigh. He never liked it when his words get ignored. “Your tea is getting cold, you know.”</p><p>And there was nothing but silence. A bitter smile crept on his face as their words rang in his ears.</p><p><em>The soulless come for a soul</em> <em>.</em></p><p>The stranger hummed those words, busying himself with rearranging books and papers on the desk. Dark blue eyes hovered over hastily scribbled runes and spilled ink on the papers that covered parts of the text, dully wondering what it might’ve said. He rounded the desk to smoothen the blankets. They could never be too comfortable. “I hope he finds me quickly. I’m not made of time, you know.”</p><p>Fingers looping over the brim of the cold tea cup. The figure sat unmoving. He’ll have to brew another cup for later.</p><p>“And besides, I miss you, Kag—”</p><p>A rustling from upstairs. The thumping of footsteps. His smile grew wider with each thump.</p><p>“My, my. Getting impatient now, are we?”</p><p>He straightened up and dusted himself. With a small nod of farewell to the silent figure, the stranger took his leave from the study, passing the monster on his way out. His once sauntered gait picked up its pace to an all out sprint as the footsteps crawled ever closer.</p><p>“This time too, I hope they put on a good show.”</p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Yaku didn’t realize they’d stopped running until the grip on his arm loosened.</p><p>When the monster first went for Aran, Hoshiumi had grabbed him and ran as fast as they could to the front door. It was locked,<em> of fucking course it was</em>, so they quickly fled to the next unlocked room they could find, which turned out to be a bathroom at the end of the left hallway on the first floor.</p><p>Oh, and they found a gun.</p><p>They got it from a toilet vending machine for 500 yen.</p><p>What the fuck was happening anymore.</p><p>Hoshiumi huffed as he pulled out another rice ball from the vending machine slot, the gun they ‘bought’ laying on the floor next to him. After the first draw where they got the gun, they’ve only gotten bottles of beer and packs of rice balls. No bullets. “I’m all out of coins,” he said, and so did Yaku.</p><p>“Can we—<em>fuck</em>, I need a second to process things.” Yaku ran a hand through his hair. He sat on the tiled floor, looking at the ceiling as if it would give him answers. “What is happening? What the fuck was that thing? How long has it been here? Are the others okay? And how the fuck is a gun inside a vending machine in a bathroom?”</p><p>Hoshiumi shook his head. “You know I can’t answer any of those questions, Yaku-san.”</p><p>“How are you so calm? More importantly, are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you? I didn’t pay attention— we were running so fast, do you think that thing can find us here?”</p><p>Hoshiumi shook his head yet again, but he figured that fussing over someone else was Yaku’s way of distracting himself, his way of regaining control, or coping with this kind of situation where he didn’t really have a say on anything that’s happening, so he held himself from interrupting Yaku’s train of thought any further. He settled with coming up with plans on his own. “If we’re going back up there, we’ll need something to defend ourselves. This gun is a start, but until we find some bullets, we should find something else.”</p><p>“Yeah? And where do you plan to find that?”</p><p>“Outside? There’s a whole hallway we haven’t entered yet and I bet we can find something useful.”</p><p>“You plan to—yeah, no. I’m not going back out there.” Yaku shook his head fervently. Hoshiumi shot him a look. “We don’t know where the thing went! How many monsters there are out there! Which doors are unlocked! We’d be sitting ducks, Hoshiumi.”</p><p>“There’s no telling if the monster wouldn’t come after us to this place either, Yaku-san.” Hoshiumi pointed out, calmly enough to finally ease Yaku into the problem at hand. “We don’t know what happened to the others either. If only for strength in numbers, I think going back up there and regrouping would be our best bet. Right after we find something to fight with, that is.”</p><p>A beat of silence hung as Yaku processed Hoshiumi’s words. “… You’re pretty level-headed in times like this, huh.”</p><p>Hoshiumi snorted. “I try.”</p><p> </p><p>They scoured for anything useful in the bathroom, though eventually coming up empty handed. Yaku refused to bring along the beers and rice balls they got from the toilet, and Hoshiumi left them behind since he didn’t find a reason to argue. It’s not like they’re going to stay here for long—not voluntarily, at least.</p><p>They tried the two remaining doors on the left hallways. Finding both to be locked, they continued forward to the right hallway, going all the way to the end of it as the first door wouldn’t budge either.</p><p> </p><p>There were mannequins.</p><p> </p><p>To say that Yaku’s heart dropped to his stomach when he opened that kitchen door was an understatement. He drew in a shaky breath to settle his nerves. “Why would they need this many mannequins?”</p><p>Hoshiumi only shrugged his surprise off as he stepped into the kitchen. “Who knows? For all we know these could be replacements for a live audience.”</p><p>The cabinets were a mess, as if someone had dumped all of its contents onto the counter in search for something. There were shards of glass on the floor and some filming equipment were broken. This might be the place where Hinata and the others first encountered the monster.</p><p> </p><p>Where did all of them go?</p><p> </p><p>“No bullets?” Hoshiumi called out from where he was searching the bags. From the counter, Yaku shook his head. “Not even a kitchen knife?”</p><p>“Oh, there are some here, but—” Yaku held up the biggest carving knife he found, “—I don’t know. That monster’s huge, I don’t think this thing’s big enough.”</p><p>Hoshiumi took the knife from Yaku’s hands, sizing it up. “Well, we’ll just have to settle for that until we find something better.” Hoshiumi frowned a bit. “I don’t see anything useful here. Should we get going?”</p><p> </p><p>They ventured out into the hallways again. Just as he was stepping on the first stair to the second floor, Hoshiumi noticed an opened door behind the staircase that they haven’t checked yet. He turned to Yaku. “Where do you think that leads to?”</p><p>Yaku could only shrug. With a knife in hand, Hoshiumi went to open the door a little wider and craned his neck for any sign of imminent danger. There seemed to be none that he could immediately see.</p><p>Yaku shifted uncomfortably beside him. Wandering around out in the open like this was making him feel really vulnerable. “Let’s just go back upstairs. If we’re lucky we can get the others to search through this space together—"</p><p> </p><p>But of course, they weren’t that lucky.</p><p> </p><p>The creature appeared from the staircase. It let out a strange gurgling sound as it took a step downwards.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh for fuck’s sake—” Yaku cursed but immediately shut himself before he gave away their location. Wide eyes met with Hoshiumi’s as he signaled him to back away slowly through the door.</p><p>It was a hallway, its walls painted green. Yaku’s heart sank when he saw that the next doors in front of them were sliding doors with light frames and literal paper. Those wouldn’t stand a chance against that freak of a monster even if they could somehow lock it…</p><p>But they heard heavy footsteps coming closer so Hoshiumi grabbed Yaku’s arm and they hurried through the hallways in search of somewhere better to hide. They reached the end of the right hallway where they found a wooden door, brown and dull like all the others outside. Hoshiumi twisted the knob and smiled in relief when it unlocked—</p><p> </p><p>The monster entered the hallway.</p><p> </p><p>“Yaku-san, quick!”</p><p>They both filtered into the room and Yaku quickly turned to lock the door, but to his horror he found nothing to lock it with; no keys, no knob locks, no latches, nothing. He whipped his head back in search for a place to hide or something to wedge onto the door but the room they entered was completely barren except for another door on the other side of the room.</p><p>The footsteps were growing steadily louder by the second. “There’s no other way. Hoshiumi, we need to move!”</p><p>“Way ahead of you,” Hoshiumi was already by the other door, twisting it open and running through it and Yaku quickly followed into—</p><p> </p><p>A fucking cell?!</p><p> </p><p>“Yaku-san! Hurry!”</p><p>Yaku didn’t have time to question it, he followed Hoshiumi behind the bars and Hoshiumi slammed the door shut and latched on the lock just in time as the monster burst in.</p><p>It rattled the handle bars. It groaned, stomping back and forth as it eyed Hoshiumi and Yaku who stood motionless on the other side of the bars.</p><p>The monster got bored a lot faster than they thought. After no more than two solid minutes of shaking the bars, the creature seemed to have given up as it turned around and left them alone, leaving the door open.</p><p> </p><p>Yaku slid down until he was on all fours, his legs felt like jelly. He can’t stop shaking. “I can’t believe that worked. That thing, it clearly saw us. It was right there. There was no place to hide, I was- it was terrifying…”</p><p>As Yaku rambled on, Hoshiumi was left speechless.</p><p>
  <em>How long has it been in this place? Was this cage made specifically for that thing? What did it do when it didn’t have anyone to chase around? How is it still alive? What does it eat? Is it territorial, or is it just curious? That thing can clearly open doors but why didn’t it at least try to open the barred doors? It didn’t look startled when it first saw us so it must have been used to humans, but then again it did attack first didn’t it?</em>
</p><p>Questions after questions piled in Hoshiumi’s mind faster than he could even begin to answer them. Something so unnatural, but so… fascinating. He found himself compelled to know more, so much so that he found himself saying, “It’s not out to get us.”</p><p>That made Yaku stop his ramblings. “What— did we not see the same monster? The thing literally <em>followed </em>us all the way here! It’ll tear us apart on sight! How is that <em>not</em> ‘out to get us’?!”</p><p>“No, I mean,” Hoshiumi threw both hands upwards, willing Yaku to lower his voice. “I’m confused too, it’s just that… I don’t think it’s out to <em>get</em> us. Not really. You screamed and I guess that aggravated it, so it lashed out at the closest thing, which ended up being Aran-san. I don’t know, it’s just… to me it looked like a wild animal when someone crossed their territory, if that makes sense. We’re in its home, it feels threatened.”</p><p>Hoshiumi continued on firing away all the questions that clouded his mind and Yaku couldn’t believe his ears. What kind of mental gymnastics did Hoshiumi have to go through to worry about whether the monster had been eating well instead of figuring out a way to flee?</p><p>“What does it matter? I’m not sticking around to find out,” Yaku said eventually, stopping Hoshiumi from continuing further. “Come on, let’s try upstairs again. We might get lucky this time.”</p><p> </p><p>To hell with what the monster eats or does in its spare time, Yaku inwardly said to himself as his palms curled into fists. They just needed to get to where everyone else was, find a way out of here, maybe give Atsumu an earful for dragging him into all of this.</p><p> </p><p>They just needed to get out and everything would disappear like a forgotten nightmare.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope my interpretation of his character makes sense! I genuinely believe that Hoshiumi would be very dependable in times of crisis. Even though he’s playful he’s preceptive enough to know where to draw the line. I haven’t read a ton of Hoshiumi-centered fics so I’m not sure if it’s canon compliant, but that’s what I think anyway.</p><p>As always, any comments and feedback are welcome! I’d love to know your thoughts on the story so far!<br/>Until next time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Reunions and Neglect</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wow i've been out for a while and i'm just throwing a short update out there i'm so sorry. i'm gonna leave you guys with even more questions though and for that i am <em>not</em> sorry. have fun reading!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kenma knew, at least from experience, that no amounts of scenarios you stage in your head will prepare you in a fight. He knew that already. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t get to fret over his childhood friend’s wounds.</p><p>“Hinata, we’re gonna need that first aid kit,” Bokuto announced, pointing at Kuroo as they entered the room. Hinata, who just finished cleaning the shallow gashes on Atsumu’s back, handed a roll of bandage to Sakusa before hurrying over to the last three.</p><p>“Your hands.” Kenma pointed out, brows furrowed with thinly veiled worry. “They’re bleeding.”</p><p>Kuroo looked down at his hands where specks of blood were already drying. “Oh, it’s actually Aran’s… it must’ve got to me when I helped him move.” Just thinking about that nasty wound made Kuroo wince. He shook the phantom pain away and looked up at Kenma, shooting him the most convincing grin he could muster. “I’m fine, just a bit burnt is all.”</p><p>Atsumu said the same thing too—that he’s okay when clearly, he’s not. Those two are similar that way; both act like that one idiot selfless character who gets hurt but doesn’t tell their teammates until they succumb to the wounds in the worst possible timing. Kenma's frown deepened; he could totally see that happening in a not-so-distant future and he hated it.</p><p>Kenma stared back at Kuroo in search of any hints of dishonestly, but eventually dropped his gaze with a sigh.</p><p>Kuroo was fine, everyone else was safe, that should be enough for now.</p><p>“Wash it first, Kuroo. Here,” Kenma took a bottle of water from Hinata and motioned for Kuroo to sit down, which he did on the edge of the bed as Hinata went back over to tend to Atsumu’s injury. Kuroo let Kenma took his hand and immediately hissed when the setter poured cold water over his wound without warning.</p><p>“A bit more gentle, will you...” Kuroo grumbled, but sighed under his breath as the coldness soothed him.</p><p>After Kuroo’s fingers were thoroughly cleaned, Kenma quietly applied something that smelled similar to aloe vera. “You’re not supposed to wrap burn wounds so that should do it for now. Tell me if it hurts later.”</p><p> </p><p>“Bokuto-san and I tried that already, there’s no way we can kick down the door without causing too much ruckus.” On the other side of the room, Hinata could be heard arguing with Atsumu over whether or not they should check the front door.</p><p>“I’m just sayin’ if <em>we</em> could get in and we got in <em>after </em>ya then there’s a chance that the door isn't locked anymore right now.” There was an irk in Atsumu’s voice as he tried to keep his voice low, though it was more from the searing pain on his back than the actual argument itself. The claw marks didn’t go anywhere near his spine so Atsumu was in no life-threatening situation, still that doesn’t mean he’s out in the clear just yet.</p><p>There wasn’t a need for much convincing, really there wasn’t. Hinata was only looking out for the possibility of the monster still lurking outside, especially since the last time he saw it was literally in the foyer where the front door was.</p><p>Eventually Ushijima and Bokuto volunteered to run downstairs and check. They came back not five minutes later, empty-handed and crestfallen.</p><p>Kuroo looked back at Kenma. “How’s Aran?”</p><p>“Not any worse than I was when the thing first came, I guess.” Kenma pointed at where Aran was, to where Ushijima and Bokuto settled back. They both were trying their best and honestly struggling to keep Aran from having a meltdown. The panic and anxiety did flow away, however slowly, and yet Aran still shook from the encounter. Ushijima dwelled on the possibility of him having a concussion but Bokuto shushed him before Aran becomes even more upset. None of them were medical experts but as athletes at least they’re informed enough about the common signs of head injuries, so they went over the list; checking for any signs of nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, ringing ears. It helped somewhat, if only for reassurances.</p><p>Aran’s eyes, rapidly blinking and dilated, slowly found its focus.</p><p>“Aran, I need you to focus, okay?” when he got a nod of confirmation, Bokuto continued, “where did the rest of you go?”</p><p>“It happened so fast, I...” Aran gulped, “I didn’t-“</p><p>“When Kourai-kun and Yakkun got out it was already in the hallways,” Atsumu answered for him, resting his head to a wall on the other side of the room. Since his shirt was ripped and dirty Atsumu had to borrow one of Sakusa’s spare buttoned up one, being extra careful not to add too much unnecessary movements when wearing it. Beside him, Sakusa has just tidied the last rolls of bandages back to the first aid kit and was now furiously rubbing his hands with a cloth that's soaked with disinfecting alcohol.</p><p>“There were six of us in total, countin’ Omi-kun and Ushijima-kun. I saw Yakkun runnin’ with Kourai-kun to the staircase, but I didn’t see if they went upstairs or down. The thing got distracted when the rest of us got out of the room too, I guess. Went for Aran-kun so I pushed him outta the way but that fucker got me on the back instead.” Atsumu winced at that. “I didn’t look where I was pushin’ him though, it was a nasty fall.”</p><p>Ushijima mulled over his words. “The monster went upstairs… are you sure you didn’t see where exactly they went?”</p><p>“If I did, I would’ve told ya’ already, and ya' would already be out there catchin' up to them." Atsumu shook his head, careful not to sound as agitated as he was. He knew how Ushijima was and how he means no harm, but couldn’t he tell that Atsumu was worried too? “There’s no need to worry. You've seen Yakkun and Kourai-kun train before, they’re ridiculously fast. They’ll be okay.”</p><p>Atsumu didn’t believe these words coming out of his own mouth, but nobody needed to know that. It’s true that Hoshiumi and Yaku were among the fastest players in the team, and their smaller build should definitely give them an advantage of sorts. If anything, at least there’s Yaku with enough common sense to get both of them somewhere safe, and Hoshiumi’s quick wit would hopefully help them in a pinch.</p><p> </p><p>As for Kageyama…</p><p> </p><p>He’ll be okay too. He’s smarter than he looks, which is saying something, really. Even though he did put it upon himself to do some stupid heroic shit, there was a chance that he would run into both Yaku and Hoshiumi, and by then it’ll be easier to find those three. This mansion isn’t infinite, they’re bound to run into each other eventually. They’ll be okay.</p><p>Gambling on stupid small chance, that's the only thing he could do for now. Atsumu could only hope.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, I almost forgot,” Bokuto piped up, virtually breaking the silence that hadn’t properly settled. He shuffled to his bag, fishing out two phones and handed them to Kenma. “Found them in the kitchen. Thought you’d need it.”</p><p>Kenma frowned. Last time he checked the battery was on sixty-something percent, now it’s barely above ten. It wasn’t supposed to drain this fast. He had to find an outlet to charge it later, and even then, there was no guarantee he’d catch a signal. But there’s no point in being pessimistic right now, so Kenma only pocketed the phone without another word. “Anyway. We need to figure out a way to escape. Any ideas?”</p><p>Silence filled the room as everyone wreaked their brains for answers.</p><p>“It looks like the front door won’t open from the inside but will from the outside,” Kuroo mumbled to himself, deep in thought. “I was thinking of counting on you guys to open the door but… well, the timing was off and now you’re stuck here with us so that plan’s no good.”</p><p>“There’s still one more person going, though,” Kenma interrupted.</p><p>Hinata looked at Kenma questioningly before it dawned on him. “You mean—?”</p><p>Kenma nodded. “Last time we texted he said he’ll arrive around midnight. We can be there when he opens the door, get everyone out right away.”</p><p>“Someone has to be on stand-by out in the open then,” Aran quipped, having calmed down some but still sounding more pessimistic than he intended to. “There’s no way all of us are goin’ to sit around in the hallways and not attract… unwanted attention. And just going there alone would be too dangerous.”</p><p>“They don’t have to be alone.” Ushijima joined in. “I suggest a group of two as it is small enough not to cause too much ruckus but perhaps just enough for a quick combat before fleeing safely. As we’ve seen in the previous fight, the monster seems to have a particular fear towards fire. These two people should hold onto the flamethrower as they wait for this person to arrive while the rest stay here. I recommend myself and Bokuto, if there are no objections, since we already went down once to check the door.”</p><p>“Sounds like a plan.”</p><p>Ushijima blinked. “It <em>is</em> a plan.”</p><p>“No, I meant—” but it was so on brand of Ushijima to say something like that and Kuroo could only shook his head. “Nevermind. Any other suggestions?”</p><p>“The townsfolk know them, right? The blue demon, I mean.” Atsumu said, referring to Kenma’s previous brief summary of everything they knew. “There’s no way the townsfolk encountered the monster in the mansion, since the warnings you guys heard were against hikers in the mountain. My guess is that there’s gotta be a way to get out from within the mansion, and if that freakish thing can find it then by hell so can we.”</p><p>Kenma cupped his hands as he pondered. Both of these options required them to split up and search most if not all the mansion’s grounds. It’s a long shot, and a dangerous one at that, but it was an option they could not simply disregard.</p><p> </p><p>Hinata suppressed a yawn.</p><p> </p><p>“I- sorry I’m just kinda, uh, tired,” Hinata said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.</p><p>Now that they thought about it, they’ve been running and stuck in high-adrenaline situation for quite some time now. With the imminent threat out of sight and the adrenaline slowly settling down they could begin to feel the full hit of fatigue and jet lag gnawing at their last bits of energy. Another yawn came from Atsumu.</p><p>“This place should be safe enough to rest,” Kuroo scratched the back of his head, looking around the room. “Uh, there’s extra pillows and sheets on the cabinet and the carpet looks clean enough to crash. Sakusa, you can take the bed.”</p><p>“What? No, I’m not the one who’s injured.” Sakusa immediately declined, his eyes tight and worried if not annoyed. “Aran-kun and Atsumu should take the bed. I’ll be fine if it’s only for one night.”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Only for one night.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>It didn’t escape Kuroo’s attention, the way Sakusa’s hands wouldn’t stop twitching and rubbing on the alcohol-doused cloth. Sakusa didn’t mean it <em>that </em>way, surely, and Kuroo wished he didn’t have to push himself like this but, delivered with utmost certainty like that, Sakusa’s words gave them more hope than any of them would admit to. “Suit yourself, then.”</p><p>“Still, someone’s gotta keep watch,” Hinata reminded.</p><p>“I’ll take guard duty, don't worry.” Bokuto offered, in a way that made it sound like the most obvious decision. When the others stared at him questioningly, he only tilted his head. “What? Tsumu, Aran-kun and Kuroo are hurt so you guys need as much rest as you can get, and the rest of you guys look terrible too. I feel fine, so it’s obvious that I’m taking guard duty.”</p><p>“You held off the monster for most of the fight though,” Ushijima pointed out.</p><p>“Yeah, only coz I’m so awesome.” Bokuto chuckled. “Really guys, I feel fine! Just get some sleep already.”</p><p>“Let’s do shifts then, I’ll take the second,” Kuroo suggested.</p><p>“Ha, as if I’m gonna wake you until you rest enough.”</p><p>“Bokuto-san...” Hinata groaned in protest.</p><p>Bokuto relented with a laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Sure. I’ll wake someone up after 2 hours, how does that sound?”</p><p>“I’m setting up an alarm then,” Kenma said as he turned on his phone, furrowing his brows as he did so. A portion of the screen was no longer clickable, but through the cracks he noted that the time was 21:49.</p><p>Bokuto groaned dramatically. “Just believe me, will you…”</p><p> </p><p>And so Aran and Atsumu took the bed, it being just wide enough to fit two of them snugly. Hinata made sure both of them was as comfortable as possible, with Atsumu laying sideways by the wall so the coldness of it would somewhat soothe his bandaged wounds and Aran getting extra pillows for his head. Kuroo and Kenma took blankets and pillows out from the cabinet and laid them on the carpet. Sakusa took the spot on the furthest left, Ushijima by his right, next to Hinata, Kenma took the spot on furthest right with Kuroo on his left.</p><p>Bokuto lifted a chair to get it near the front door and sat there, grinning. “Doesn’t this feel like a sleepover?” Everyone only groaned tiredly at that.</p><p> </p><p>Brief conversations were exchanged, little questions for comfort and assurance that things will be better once they’re awake, those died down in a matter of moments as it didn’t take long until everyone fall into dreamless sleep.</p><p>With everyone else soundly asleep, Bokuto now had no reason to feign nonchalance. Bokuto slumped into his chair and took a deep, deep sigh. He had to put up a sturdy reliable front for Hinata since the first monster encounter and people were constantly in the verge of completely losing their minds and he didn't want to make things even worse for them. But now that nobody else was looking Bokuto could finally let his thoughts wander and take a second to process things at his own pace.</p><p>Bokuto closed his eyes as he craned his neck upward. Things were not looking great. Things are looking quite bad actually, Bokuto corrected himself with a barely audible chuckle. Both Aran and Atsumu were injured, they've lost Yaku and Hoshiumi before even meeting them, and god knows where Kageyama was and where he was actually going. There are monsters roaming this building and the front door is sealed shut when before he could've sworn the door could be torn down with a good kick.</p><p>Bokuto fiddled with the chain of his necklace absent-mindedly, grasping on the coolness of it to keep him grounded. He really thought going here to mention some things in the livestreams for his plan to—it was a cute plan, honestly, and he did agree to it when Hinata proposed the idea but... Things were just not going in their favor today.</p><p>Bokuto casted a gaze around his friends, noting the soft snores and the rise and fall of their chest.</p><p> </p><p>Both Kuroo and Kenma looked so peaceful in their sleep, Bokuto couldn’t help but to chuckle softly. Out of habit he pulled out his phone to quickly snap some pictures of Kuroo for future blackmail material. He stared at the pictures with a snort, zooming in on Kuroo who had his mouth hanging open and drooling.</p><p> </p><p>…What?</p><p> </p><p>There were other pictures in his gallery already. He’s pretty sure he hadn’t taken them from those angles.</p><p>Bokuto’s frown deepened as he compared the photos with the view in front of him. This one has Kuroo’s arms slung over Kenma. In this one, Kenma was on the middle side of the carpet instead of the furthest right. This one wasn’t even a picture of the guys sleeping on the carpet; it was a whole different room altogether, with a TV and several people sleeping on sofas while others slept on the carpet almost off-camera.</p><p> </p><p>The ones on the sofa… were Hoshiumi and Yaku.</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto couldn’t believe his eyes. He zoomed in and out several times, triple checking if it was who he thought it was. He checked the date of which the photos were taken—it’s the same date as today, down to the hour, too. Heck, even if they had different dates and times that still wouldn’t explain how he had both Hoshiumi and Yaku’s pictures in his gallery when he hadn’t even met them yet…</p><p>Before he could even begin to process everything, there were pitter patters of what sounded like footsteps coming from outside. Bokuto straightened up in his seat, straining his ears. The sounds didn't seem to disturb anyone who's currently sleeping.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“Where the hell did you go this time…?”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>As it faded away, Bokuto thought that there was something about this voice that sounded familiar. Something that turned his blood to ice water and set his jaw clenched in determination.</p><p>It sounded like Kageyama.</p><p>When he realized that, the wariness that had surged within him disappeared as if it never existed. “Does he not know that we’re here? If he’s not going to find us first, then…”</p><p>Throwing cautions to the wind without even thinking it over, Bokuto slipped out of the door and closed it with a soft click.</p><p>“Wait for me, Kageyama.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile, somewhere not entirely here, somewhere tethered from the reality any of them knew. Kageyama opened doors after doors in search of something. <em>Someone</em>. He headed back down to the hall, up the stairs, looking from one side of the house to the other.</p><p>They were coming and he was not strong enough to hold them down.</p><p>“I told them to stay put! I told them...” Kageyama choked, pulling at his dark hair as anxiety crept up his spine dangerously fast. It’s up to him, it has always been up to him. He just had to go faster, keep moving. Blood rushed to his feet and he turned his heels to run, and he ran and he kept running until he’s stripped of all securities and left bared with nothing but primal fear and hopelessness.</p><p>“Don’t die... please, not this time...”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>things are uhh not exactly doing great for me rn i'm currently running away from my responsibilities--</p><p>please do comment if there's any writing errors, be it confusing settings or spellings and grammatical errors in general!</p><p>i'm not abandoning this story at all and i'll try to pick up the pace in terms of uploading but i've been saying that a lot these days so better not to keep your hopes up. i'm still pretty much engrossed with the plot of this story though and i find myself adding more and more stuff into it so now i'm just trying to find a way to get this thing coherent enough for the general public lol</p><p>until then!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. What'd I Miss?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>im honestly still running away from my responsibilities rn but im!!! finally free from immediate assignments!! and writing oikawa is just so much fun and this chapter has one of my favorite bits and i just can’t stop now!<br/>Anyways, here's the <a>map of the mansion</a> for reference in case it gets confusing.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Walking through the front of the mansion really did feel like an intro to a horror movie.</p><p>In Oikawa’s defense, his nerves were already a jumbled mess from driving all the way here by himself since Iwaizumi couldn’t shake off his parents and meet him halfway along the trip like they initially planned. Not to mention the townsfolk giving him half-assed cryptic warnings along the way, interrogating him on one of the gas stations about whether he was press or a journalist of sorts.</p><p>(One even asked if he was affiliated with the Buzzfeed Unsolved crew, something he could only <em>dream </em>of, but that’s beside the point right now.)</p><p>When Oikawa inquired if there were something out here worth all these warnings, they only muttered vaguely about a demon that lurks in the woods at night time that may or may not eat you alive, which was perfectly normal rural townsfolk behavior and not alarming at all. They eventually stopped pestering him after someone finally asked him if he’s with “the rooster head and the loud ginger” who came by earlier, to which he answered affirmative assuming they meant Kuroo and Hinata.</p><p>A part of Oikawa warned of the potential danger he’s putting himself into, though maybe it was just the horror-movie-loving part of him reaching for vague similarities to the contents he binge-watches on his downtime. He almost turned back when the road dissolved into an ill-maintained dirt path if it wasn’t because of his pride.</p><p>Oikawa once again cursed at the lost opportunity of just grabbing Iwaizumi and throwing bullshit excuses to his parents about how they were going catch a flight and elope in LA or something equally outrageous like that. The Iwaizumi family undoubtly knew about Oikawa’s antics almost as well as his own parents; Iwaizumi could’ve just played along and let Oikawa drag him away as he blamed him for being dramatic like usual and his parents would laugh and wave them off and then they’d be on their merry way no problem. That plan was way cooler and more convenient but nooo, Iwaizumi wanted to be a poster child and actually look after his parents while they’re in town. He regretted having eavesdropped Iwaizumi's conversation with the Japan national team members...</p><p>He didn't. He really didn't.</p><p> </p><p>And besides, who would’ve thought there’d be a dozen of mannequins greeting him right as he opened the front door?</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa did not scream. Of course he didn’t—and if he did he would never admit it anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“Ugh, this was going <em>so well,</em>” Oikawa muttered under his breath. He shuffled awkwardly through the mannequins, entering the foyer with his phone halfway dialing Hinata’s number on one hand and car keys wedged between his fingers on the other. You know, just in case. Looking around, the absence of noise was really getting to him. Not that the place looked like a stereotypical haunted mansion, but Oikawa couldn’t shake off the feeling that he’s being watched. It’s practically etched in the empty expanse of the halls, eyes that follows his every move.</p><p>Then the door closed behind him with a slam.</p><p>Great, so the mansion’s haunted <em>and </em>sentient.</p><p>His mind inadvertently wandered back to the townsfolk’s vague warnings of a monster lurking in the woods. They never specified what kind of monster it exactly was or the danger it may inflict, but now that he was alone with his thoughts in an unfamiliar place Oikawa couldn’t decide whether that was something to be thankful for, because now he couldn’t stop himself from constructing what the monster could’ve possibly looked like; could it have been similar to bigfoot, hairy and strange but otherwise familiar and almost plain-looking? Or could it be more of an abomination, indescribable and insanely terrifying, like an eldritch monster that only exist in nightmares?</p><p>Oikawa scratched his head in frustration. He did call Hinata a few times when he stopped by the gas station, but it all went to voicemail. On top of that, neither Kenma nor Hinata was reading his texts. He even tried to casually text Bokuto and Kuroo to see where they were, but all he got back was radio silence. The blinking contact number on his opened phone right now only acted as empty reassurance at this point.</p><p>He did expect them to pull some kind of prank on him for this, even though it didn’t prepare him to the mannequins. Maybe if he stayed in the car and locked all doors until someone notices his car outside and gets him—</p><p> </p><p>Right as Oikawa was about to make a totally dignified retreat, Kageyama appeared from the stairs.</p><p>Their eyes met and Oikawa notice Kageyama looking around nervously, but he didn’t look quite as surprised as Oikawa thought he’d be. That’s odd, considering how he and Hinata took extra care in keeping his attendance a secret to the rest of them. Unless Hinata <em>did </em>tell Kageyama, which was not unlikely considering the radio silence and that could explain the mannequins for pranks—</p><p>Kageyama glided down the stairs and quickly grabbed his wrist.</p><p> </p><p>“Tobio—"</p><p>“Be quiet before anyone hears you. Come with me now.”</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama’s voice was low but urgent and demanding. Not sparing a moment for Oikawa to retort, Kageyama led him into the first room to the right hallway, locking the door with a swift motion.</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama’s hand on Oikawa’s wrist lingered for a bit even after the door was securely locked, which Oikawa took notice but paid little to no attention to as he instead made use of his time assessing the state Kageyama was in. A bit of dust and soot covered him from head to toe, his hair (which Oikawa begrudgingly knew was somehow always straight and somewhat neat despite never deliberately styled) had cobwebs and was sticking out in odd angles, and there’s a considerable rip on the calf section of his left jeans leg that didn’t look intentional.</p><p>As Oikawa was processing this, Kageyama quietly let him go and made a beeline towards the bookshelves, zipping open his bag as he did so.</p><p>“Where are the others? Are you guys already streaming?” Oikawa asked once he found his voice. “And… why are you so sweaty?”</p><p>“I’ve been running,” was Kageyama’s reply as he wiped his forehead. “We haven’t started the stream yet, but don’t get your hopes up. I don’t think anyone even remembers we have that scheduled tonight anyways.”</p><p>Oikawa frowned. “What? But Shoyou told me—"</p><p>“We have other issues to deal with,” Kageyama cut him off, not slowing down from scanning through the shelves. “Now be quiet, I need to find something.”</p><p>Oikawa pulled a face. Since when did Kageyama have this attitude towards him? “Well shouldn’t we find them now? I’d call Shoyou’s phone but I haven’t been able to reach anyone—”</p><p>“I can’t either. Nobody can. We’ve got no signal. no wifi. Hush now.”</p><p>Okay, Kageyama was definitely showing some attitude at him right now and Oikawa couldn’t help but to acknowledge a tinge of guilt rising within himself. “Out of all places, he chose now to get into his rebellious phase…” Oikawa muttered under his breath and settled down on a chair by a long table.</p><p>But not even a minute goes by dully observing the walls and lines of shelves Kageyama was searching through did Oikawa speak up again. “Look, are you going to give me a straight answer or not? What’s going on? Where is everyone?”</p><p>Kageyama stopped briefly as he opened a book and several pieces of paper fell out of it. The papers itself were yellowing and uneven on the edges but Oikawa’s attention went to the strange handwriting; even from the spot Oikawa was sitting he could tell that those were certainly not Japanese, rather... not something he learned in class, that’s for sure, more like things he likely stumbled upon on the internet. Is it… runes? It was familiar, no doubt, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Meanwhile Kageyama quickly shoved the papers into his bag and resumed his search.</p><p>“And what are <em>those </em>for? Is this a part of the stream? Are we playing IRL Slenderman or something right now?”</p><p>Kageyama sighed but didn’t stop searching. He really didn’t have the time to deal with Oikawa’s stubbornness right now, but with his patience an explanation was clearly overdue at this point.</p><p> </p><p>“Something attacked us on the kitchen at the end of this hallway. Something dangerous. The thing was huge, with long nails—no, <em>claws</em>—and sharp teeth. We went separate ways, eventually everyone else regrouped upstairs, I went to get you, and here we are. More people got here and scattered, some did regroup with the rest though I think.”</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa was dumbfounded.</p><p> </p><p>Surely Kageyama was hallucinating? This was an old building that’s been abandoned for god knows how long, no amount of scrubbing and cleaning can change that. Something bad must’ve grown in this musty atmosphere that had gotten Kageyama out of his mind.</p><p> </p><p>Either that or this mansion <em>is </em>haunted.</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa felt a stab of fear in his stomach but quickly shook it off. “Tobio-chan, buddy, are you okay? Did you hit your head? Or have you finally lost it?”</p><p>“Are you saying that I’m crazy and made up this whole thing?” Kageyama gritted his teeth, seemingly appalled by the nickname. “Look, if anyone can believe me, it’s you. I know you believe these things, Oikawa-san. It’s just the same as those paranormal stuff you watch all the time.”</p><p>“I don’t watch—” Oikawa shook his head, finding the start of another petty argument unworthy to pursue further. He dropped it and adopted a more serious tone. “Okay sure. How do I know that you’re not pulling on my leg <em>specifically </em>because you know I believe in the paranormal? It might not technically be your idea but someone else could’ve easily roped you in on theirs.”</p><p>“I can’t with you right now…” Kageyama cursed under his breath. From deep behind the bookshelves, he pulled out a dark green ribbon that connected with a pendulum of sorts. It looked like it was made of washed purple stone, but Kageyama pocketed it before Oikawa could chance a closer look.</p><p>“I need to ask this again, is this some kind of prank? I’m sorry if this sounds like I don’t trust you but this is just a pinch too surreal...”</p><p>Kageyama clicked his tongue, stopping himself from outright cursing to his face. He stared straight to Oikawa. “Well, someone is already hurt at this point so if the crew hadn’t come out by now, they’re fucking cruel.”</p><p>Alarm rose in Oikawa’s face. “Someone got hurt?”</p><p>“Yeah. Atsumu-san and Aran-san. They got into a scuffle with the monster. They’ll be alright, though.”</p><p>“Holy shit so you’re not joking.”</p><p>“Now that we’re on the same page, come on.” Kageyama zipped his bag closed and slung it back to his shoulder. “There are more things I need to grab before I get you to the others.”</p><p>“Wait, we’re going out? To where? I thought you said there’s a monster outside!”</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama gestured for him to be quiet already, and Oikawa quickly obliged. They head for the foyer, where tons of mannequins were still standing and scattered about.</p><p>“Bait,” Kageyama explained simply, gesturing to the mannequins. “And alarm of sorts.”</p><p>“You put mannequins here as <em>alarm</em>?”</p><p>“Hey, it works, doesn’t it? I got here quickly after hearing your scream earlier, after all.”</p><p>“I did not—!”</p><p>“Mind the noise. It’ll hear you.”</p><p>That was enough to shut him up.</p><p> </p><p>They continued walking into a door behind the staircase, into what looked like a Japanese style training room with tatami mats and shoji walls. Not that he hasn’t already, but in the voice barely a whisper Oikawa began rambling as Kageyama searched through the drawers. “How is something as dangerous as that not get anyone’s attention? Like, the townsfolk know at least, but how could it not leak to some news? There are tons of independent paranormal investigators, ghost hunters and stuff that are very intense, and what about the uh, don’t the FBI have departments for this or something? The Secret Service? CIA? Whatever the fuck the government has assigned to deal with crazy stuff like this?”</p><p>“You and your conspiracy things—“ Kageyama started, but stopped himself. His body was halfway into the drawers, digging through fabrics and folded futon in search for god knows what. “It’s not like it’s a secret anyway, someone did write about it though maybe under the pretense that it’s a fake story to avoid… I don’t even know what they’re avoiding, honestly. The blue demon, doesn’t that ring a bell to you? I know you’re not unfamiliar with it.”</p><p>“Well yeah the townsfolk told me that name too, but what does that have to do with—"</p><p> </p><p>And then it clicked.</p><p> </p><p>“Holy fuck.” Oikawa threw a hand to cover his mouth. Memories of nights spent huddled under blankets with strained eyes as he’s miles deep in threads and posts of supernatural stories comes flooding in. “Holy fuck!”</p><p>“Mind the noise—“</p><p>“It’s one of those things that I-oh my god I can’t believe I didn’t recognize it immediately. The blue demon who lived in the white mansion- I thought that place was somewhere in Europe! Who would’ve known it’s in the outskirts of some town in Japan of all places—” Kageyama shushed him and Oikawa stopped himself to suppress the sneaking suspicion that this kind of place not being the only one in existence. Nobody needed that kind of energy right now. “—I thought the writer was having a field day… They also mentioned something about time being fucked up, like the whole place only exist in negative space or something? Honestly at this point I’m not surprised if an alien jumps me.”</p><p>Oikawa missed the tension building up on Kageyama’s shoulders.</p><p> </p><p>By the time Oikawa finished with his gushing rant Kageyama had already finished his search in the drawers, a hand pulling out an ordinary-looking book only discernible by the worn leather bound and crumpling pages.</p><p>Oikawa took notice of the book, silently wondering the significance that was worth finding it instead of reuniting with the rest of their friends in a building that was supposedly riddled with monsters. “That thing looks super worn out, did it fall into water or something?”</p><p>“What?... Oh.” Kageyama looked up, then back down at the book as if just now realizing the state of it. “It’s been like this for a while now.”</p><p>That doesn’t quite answer his question, Oikawa thought, but he shrugged anyway. Kageyama isn’t exactly known for his openness and approachable personality, after all. Maybe this place’s humidity made the papers shrivel up faster than it normally would, who was he to know for sure.</p><p> </p><p>He watched as Kageyama flipped through the book with practiced fluidity, eyes scanning for something Oikawa couldn’t quite guess himself. In pages where Kageyama paused to read further, Oikawa stole a peek into the book and found that it was written in multiple languages; neat English letters that looked to be the original writing as it had the most consistency overwritten with Italian and some Japanese, some barely understandable German on the corners of the page here and there. Kageyama muttered quietly as he read through them, unheeding of Oikawa’s jaw that was practically on the floor.</p><p>“Tobio-chan, you understand Italian?” Oikawa asked incredulously.</p><p>Kageyama blinked. “Uh, yeah. Of course, I speak it. Why wouldn’t I?”</p><p>“This is—these are your notes?”</p><p>“No. I mean- not all of them? Mostly the ones in Japanese, but yeah these are my notes.”</p><p>Oikawa shook his head. He knew that Kageyama played in Italy for quite some time now, but it never occurred to him that he’d have to learn the language as well. Kageyama Tobio, his underclassman who barely even passed Japanese let alone English now speaks Italian? His mind simply couldn’t comprehend it. Oikawa reached out a hand to get a better look at the book.</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama flinched away, making him instinctively retract his hand.</p><p> </p><p>Instant guilt rushed through him once more. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to- sorry.”</p><p>“It’s fine.” But there’s an odd tinge of frustration bleeding into Kageyama’s voice that didn’t go unnoticed.</p><p>Oikawa inwardly kicked himself.</p><p> </p><p>Kags didn’t bother saying anything else, so Oikawa did what he does best to dilute the inescapable awkwardness; drone on and on about how he was just so tired from driving on rough terrain for god knows how long and fill the silence with whatever topics he could think of—that was until a pair of huge almond-shaped black eyes met his at the end of the dim hallway.</p><p> </p><p>An alien.</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa opened his mouth, but for once no sound came out. Grey skin, disproportionate limbs that weren’t quite human-like, and huge, protruding black eyes—it must be. The… <em>thing </em>in front of them was slowly advancing their way, but it was somewhat taking its time? As if waiting for either Oikawa or Kageyama to make a move. Oikawa was anchored to the ground with cold, paralyzing fear, the kind that trickles down your spine on icy weights that keeps you rooted to the spot.</p><p>It took a step closer.</p><p>They needed to get away, somewhere safe, somewhere—</p><p> </p><p>A hand grasped Oikawa’s shirt as Kageyama yanked him out of the way. “Move!”</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama slammed the door behind the staircase right as they passed it. Oikawa ran without a second thought, following Kageyama’s lead before the creature gets any closer. As they hear a door flung open from behind them, Kageyama noticed an opened door and he pulled Oikawa into it, slamming the door shut and locking it twice. His eyes darted around to find other things to pile onto the door, but upon finding nothing he pressed himself against the door as extra weight, Oikawa quickly following. There they stood, hearts in their mouths, praying that the monster hadn’t spotted them rounding the the hallway at all.</p><p>And it didn’t. They heard heavy footsteps at the end of the hallway, circling the foyer for what felt like an eternity but perhaps only lasted mere minutes before the steps vanishes upstairs.</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa pressed a hand over his eyes, struggling to breathe evenly again.</p><p>”What… the fuck.”</p><p>“This floor should be clear now,” Kageyama said, his head pressed against the doorframe to look for footsteps. “I better hurry up before the monsters get to us again, let’s go regroup and get you safe with the others—“</p><p>Oikawa looked up. “Wait, monsters?”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“You said monsters. We’ve only seen<em> one</em> monster.” Oikawa’s eyes widen in terror. “<em>How many are out there?</em>”</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama was quiet for a moment. “Honestly? I have no idea.”</p><p> </p><p>Well that didn’t sound foreboding at all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Uncanny Valley</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>here’s a late Valentine’s gift! :D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The storm was crawling ever so closer. The pitter patter of rain had grown louder now, though still faraway, greeting both Oikawa and Kageyama with the wary heaviness that preceded it even without the dropping temperatures. Occasional lightnings flashed across the sky, lighting the hallways and thus the space under the bathroom door where both setters sat in wait.</p><p>Sounds of footsteps echoed from a distance. Oikawa pressed an ear to the doorframe. “You hear that?”</p><p>“It’s Bokuto-san. He should be out by now looking for us.”</p><p>“Neat. Then let’s go.”</p><p>“Actually, uh…” Kageyama cleared his throat, “… I don’t think I can walk yet.”</p><p>“…Oh…” Oikawa eyed Kageyama who was visibly shaking, silently agreeing. <em>Yeah</em>, Oikawa thought to himself as he reached for a handkerchief and passed it to Kageyama to wipe the grime from his face, <em>I suppose a monster encounter does that to you</em>.</p><p>He’s never seen Kageyama in this state though; grasping at his book (log book? Journal? Diary? Who the fuck knows, Tobio was weirdly cryptic about it and that thing was written in largely Italian so definitely not Oikawa) like a lifeline, head hung low and trembling as if he was freezing. To be honest Oikawa thought he’d be the one shaking like a leaf instead of Kageyama who undoubtedly already saw the thing before, but perhaps he’s just now experiencing the delayed shock of it all. “Then we should just wait until they guy finds us himself—"</p><p>“No—no. Bokuto-san wouldn’t know we’re here, he’d just walk right past us, or worse, not go by this hall at all.” Kageyama shook his head fervently. “I need you to go get him. Please.”</p><p>“And just leave you here?”</p><p>“Only for a minute, then you guys should go right back here.” Kageyama said, fiddling with the ends of Oikawa’s handkerchief. “Unless you’re leaving me behind?”</p><p>“Don’t be stupid.”</p><p>Oikawa huffed. Going back out there merely minutes after being chased by a literal monster was not on top of Oikawa’s priority, to be honest. He’d rather just hole up in here and figure out a better, safer way to attract Bokuto’s attention from here.</p><p>But what the hell.</p><p>“… Alright. You stay here, I’ll be back in a sec, don’t open the door unless you’re sure who’s outside.”</p><p>Kageyama nodded. “Be careful.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Bokuto was an idiot.</p><p>Going out to investigate a suspicious sound-voice-footsteps-illusion-thing alone, not informing anybody of what he was doing nor where he was going (mostly because he had no idea himself and he was just going wherever his gut tells him to go at this point),</p><p>He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Maybe it was foolish of him to hope Kageyama was just standing there idly by the corridor and he could quickly grab him and head back, but it has been at least fifteen minutes of him circling around the same floor and he’s honestly at a loss. At this point he wasn’t even sure if what he heard wasn’t his mind just screwing with him, maybe there was nobody outside and he just got himself into unnecessary danger because he didn’t think twice.</p><p>He really was an idiot.</p><p>Well, at least he’s self-aware.</p><p> </p><p>Going downstairs and checking the front door one more time, he halted in the middle of the staircase as he was greeted with the sight of mannequins littering the first floor. There was at least a dozen of them, some with missing parts, some weren’t even upright. In a corner, a mannequin head laid in pieces as if it’s been kicked to the wall and shattered. “What the… why? The fuck?”</p><p>“That’s what I said too.”</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto whipped around and there he was, Oikawa Tooru, standing in the hallways looking back at him warily.</p><p>“Uhh, hey?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh no. No no no no.” Bokuto began to rant in a voice strained to barely keep it above a whisper, hands went up to yank his own hair in panic as he descended the stairs. “Was it you? The one Kenma and Hinata were talking about, was it you?”</p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p>“It’s too soon. What the fuck, I should’ve checked the time before running off like that but I thought you’re supposed to arrive around midnight.”</p><p>“I came in on time, though? Maybe like 15 minutes early but…” Oikawa pulled out his phone to check the time. He frowned, confused. “...what? I could’ve sworn it was almost midnight when I got in. it’s still 11.12?”</p><p>“How long have you been in this mansion then?”</p><p>“Like, an hour I think? It already felt like forever though…” Oikawa shrugged, putting his phone back to his pocket. “I’m at a loss too, honestly. Tobio-ch—Tobio and I, we hid in one of the rooms down that hall for a while, a library I think, and Tobio wanted to grab some other stuff so we went through that door right there into a Japanese styled room of sorts. Then there was the whole running away from the monster bit.”</p><p>There was a beat of silence. “So you’ve met it.”</p><p>“… yeah.” Bokuto could see Oikawa gulp down his nervousness. “How the fuck did you guys get this place?”</p><p>“Ghosthunter discount.” Bokuto winced. That joke was getting so tone-deaf, he wondered how genuine the owner was when they told Kenma that. If they knew what was in this building before renting it to Kenma, they’re so fucking cruel. “Anyhow, you said you were with Kageyama?”</p><p>“Yeah, Tobio told me to get you. He’s in the bathroom, that way.” Oikawa pointed behind him to the left hallway. “Come on, I don’t like just standing out in the open like this.”</p><p> </p><p>Oikawa turned to walk back where he came from and Bokuto fell into step beside him. “We didn’t see any mannequins the last time we went downstairs, why the hell are those here anyway?”</p><p>“Oh, Tobio said he used it as bait.”</p><p>“Bait?”</p><p>“Don’t ask me, he didn’t elaborate on anything. My guess is as good as yours, though I do have a solid idea considering we know the obvious target...” Oikawa sighed, not wanting to think about the hideous creature any more than he has to. “Nice jacket, by the way.”</p><p>“Thanks. I found it in the bathroom we’re going, actually.”</p><p>“I—you know what? I’m not even going to ask.”</p><p> </p><p>They safely made it to the bathroom door without another word, and Oikawa stepped on ahead to knock on the door.</p><p>No response.</p><p>“Tobio-chan, it’s me.” Oikawa tried again, knocking slightly louder. Still, nothing. A frown grew on both of their faces. “Tobio? You there?” He reached to rattle the knob, but to his surprise, the knob gave in with a single tug and clicked open. “What the—"</p><p>As an unsettling feeling began welling inside of him, Oikawa pushed the door wider and slipped in, closely followed by Bokuto. The cabinets under the sink were opened and what little items inside it were strewn about the floor. Bokuto went ahead to the arch that connect to the next room, but he only found the pile of beer bottles and rice balls he and Hinata left behind.</p><p> </p><p>There was no Kageyama in sight.</p><p> </p><p>“What—where—”</p><p>“Shit, he did it again.”</p><p>Oikawa was baffled. “Did what again?”</p><p>“Going off on his own like this.” Bokuto slid onto the floor, not knowing what else to do. “We split when the monster first appeared back then, me and Hinata here and Kageyama was with Kuroo and Kenma who booked it upstairs, but when Hinata and I caught up to the other group they said Kageyama got out to find us even though we didn’t run into him on our way up.”</p><p>Oikawa sat down in front of him, mulling over his words. “Are you saying he’s doing this on purpose? To what, avoid you? Avoid Hinata?”</p><p>“Hell if I know at this point, none of us saw him after he run off on his own.”</p><p>“We were on the end of this hall, there’s no other place he could’ve gone through without us noticing that’s not currently locked, is there?”</p><p>“The same thing happened back then too.” Bokuto said, eyes peering all over the room in search of what’s not there anymore, as if Kageyama would suddenly materialize in a corner somewhere if he didn’t pay enough attention. “There was no way Hinata and I didn’t run into him when he got out of his hiding place with Kuroo and Kenma but somehow he did it, and it looks like he’s done it again.”</p><p><em>Why, though?</em> The question hung in the air as the two former captains frowned deep in thought. Why was Kageyama doing this? What is he hiding from? “What is he not telling me…”</p><p>Bokuto perked up at that. "So what <em>did</em> he tell you?”</p><p>Oikawa thought for a moment. “That monsters are real and there’s an alien-looking one out there trying to kill us for god knows why. Oh, and that we have no foreseeable way to escape.”</p><p>Okay, yeah, that about summed it up. “Come to think of it, how’d you know I was coming? I tried to be as careful as I can but was I too loud?”</p><p>“We heard footsteps, I guess, not that loud anyway. I didn’t know it was you specifically, though Kageyama did mention you by name when he told me to get you.”</p><p>Now that he said it, it occured to him how strange it was that Kageyama knew that Bokuto was coming just by listening to his footsteps. According to Bokuto’s side of the story—which is the only side of the story Oikawa knew at this point—Kageyama didn’t even see him nor Hinata after they split up from their first encounter with that monster. Just what made him so sure that it was him in the first place?</p><p>Meanwhile, Bokuto was considering the possibility that Kageyama <em>was </em>the source of that voice earlier that got him outside back then. Still doesn’t explain why he didn’t stop for him if he knew he was coming, though.</p><p>In any case, if there’s a way for Kageyama to leave without them knowing then there’s a way for something else to get to them; this place isn’t as safe as either of them hoped it would be.</p><p>Oikawa gingerly got up. “We should regroup. You said the others are safely upstairs?”</p><p>“Yeah, Hinata, Kuroo, Kenma, Aran, Tsumu, Omi, and Ushiwaka—"</p><p>“Hang on—” <em>fucking Ushijima was here too?</em> Nobody said anything about him being in the party. Hinata should really specify his party invitations next time—though then again if there’s ever going to be a next time in partying in a haunted, monster-invested building, Oikawa should’ve already learned his lesson by then not to get entangled with that mess. At Bokuto’s inquisitive stares Oikawa cleared his throat. “—never mind, yeah, let’s get going. It’s been a minute; the others are probably wondering where you are right now.”</p><p>“Yeah, I’d imagine they’d be a little freaked out to not find me in the room with th—" Bokuto started, but realized his mistake.</p><p>Oikawa stared at him, wide-eyed.</p><p> </p><p>“You… got out on your own?”</p><p> </p><p>Bokuto grimaced. “yeah, I kinda… did. The others were asleep when I got out…”</p><p>“And you didn’t think to wake someone up to go with you or something?”</p><p>“Hey, I panicked, okay? I heard someone outside and it was super faint and I thought I’d miss it if I took time getting someone with me—” in all honesty, it didn’t even occur to him to do that; he just heard what he thought was Kageyama’s voice and darted after it, which kind of made him just like Kageyama who scurried off on his own without telling anyone where he intended to go, but Oikawa didn’t need to know that, “—and hey, even then I was only fast enough to catch you and not Kageyama. Any later and we might not have even crossed paths, so really it’s a good thing I came out as fast as I did.”</p><p>Oikawa shook his head. Unbelievable.</p><p> </p><p>The walk back to the entrance room was as uneventful as the walk from it, only both of them tried the two remaining doors in the hallways where Kageyama could’ve reasonably gotten into, though they found that still neither of the doors were unlocked. Bokuto stared at the mannequins questioningly, but upon finding no particular reason to do anything about it he decided to just leave it be. He led both of them up the stairs, stopping at the face of the first door on their right.</p><p>Bokuto knocked on the door, but heard no response from those inside.</p><p>“This feels familiar…” Oikawa murmured under his breath as Bokuto knocked twice more and receiving no response. He eventually leaned forward for the knob and twisted it open slightly. It gave in, sending chills to both of them as Oikawa pushed the door further open.</p><p> </p><p>And would you look at that. The room was empty.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Kenma blinked the last remnants of sleep from his eyes as he looked around the room, alarm steadily rising.</p><p>Bokuto was missing.</p><p>The chair he last saw Bokuto sat on was unmistakably empty. He checked his phone—there was still 20 minutes before the two-hour mark that they agreed upon. Did he run off like Kageyama did? When exactly did he do that? Why? A metal pipe he saw Bokuto bring to the fight before was laying on the foot of the chair too, did he seriously leave without any weapon with him? How far has he gotten himself to? Kenma knew the former ace was careless to a fault, but there’s got to be a limit to how much risk he’s willing to take, right? Where was he now? Was he safe? Were <em>they </em>safe here when Bokuto certainly found a reason somehow to get out by himself? What made him leave?</p><p>As Kuroo jostled awake beside him, Kenma could feel the beginnings of another panic attack. He distantly heard Kuroo calling for him, but his mind was already occupied by questions, his heart beating faster and faster with each question of why, why <em>why <strong>why wHY WHY W H</strong></em>—</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“Where are you? Anyone?”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Kenma could see Kuroo’s head turning to the door. That’s not… coming from inside. Not from him, not from his head.</p><p>The voice was muffled and panicked, but he was sure of it. It sounded like<em>—</em></p><p>“Kageyama…?”</p><p>
  <em>“Everyone! So you’re here!”</em>
</p><p>The sudden loudness of his voice almost made Kenma jump. Kageyama wasn’t keeping himself quiet at all and it made him nervous. Nevertheless, the urgent tone in his voice wasn’t lost on him. <em>“I need you to get out and—there’s something I think you guys should see.”</em></p><p>“W-what is it?” Kenma inquired, unsure whether the cracks in his voice were from sleep or stress as Kuroo quickly rose to open the door.</p><p>
  <em>“I… it’s hard to explain, just follow me now. I think we can use it to escape somehow… Hurry though, I don’t know how long it’ll stay there—oh, it’s moving—"</em>
</p><p>They opened the door only seconds later, but Kageyama was no longer by the door, there was only sounds of footsteps going down the hallways.</p><p>Something to help them escape? It’s moving? What the heck was Kageyama referring to?</p><p>“What’s going on?” a raspy voice called out from the opposite end of the carpet where they lay. Ushijima sat up and so did Sakusa who rubbed his eyes in effort to quickly skip the daze from waking up. “Was that Kageyama?”</p><p>“He said something about a way out but I’m not sure, he left in a hurry.” <em>No—Kuroo, don’t say it like that, it’s much more than that. </em>Kenma struggled to keep his running thoughts together, and the discussions that he couldn’t jump into about thoughtlessly chasing after Kageyama and see what he’s up to only made it harder to set his head straight. <em>This feels wrong, </em>his head won’t stop screaming,<em> there’s something I'm not getting, something potentially… dangerous? But what is it? What is i—</em></p><p>“We’ll go, maybe this <em>something </em>is the one that made Bokuto get out without telling any of us. You guys stay here.”</p><p>When did they say anything about Bokuto missing? “Ushijima, no—!” Kenma shook his head fervently, unable to really convey what he meant when he’s struggling to even catch up to what’s he’s thinking himself.</p><p>A wave of loud clattering came from outside—wasn’t that the direction where Kageyama headed towards? The sounds were sending Kenma into a sensory overload, so much so that he could barely concentrate on what was happening around him. “Don’t leave!” he gasped, but when he opened his eyes again, both Ushijima and Sakusa were already gone.</p><p>Tendrils went and grasp the hems of his shirt but missed by mere inches. In a panic, Kenma ran after them.</p><p>Leaving the door wide open.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>damn, they just couldn’t stay still can they. always on the move like that.<br/>they'll be reunited soon, though! maybe. probably. who can tell at this point?</p><p>also, keeping vague chapter titles was harder than i thought lol i just want to write stuff like "Kags running compilation" or "oikawa crashes a livestream, a collage of bad decisions" or something like that but we have an aesthetic that needs to be upheld (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ</p><p>regardless, tell me what you think about this story so far! it's honestly delightful to see comments about my work, be it your reactions of each scenes or theories of what might happen next, it motivates me to write even more than i already am!</p><p>until next time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Daydream Despair</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hey look! we reached chapter 10! :D<br/>I'm struggling to maintain the pace that I want in the story and tend to end up butchering it anyway so today I'm not going to think about it too much and go with what I think of first, I hope it turns out alright-</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Blue Demon in the White Mansion.</p><p>Oikawa was familiar with that uninspiring title for quite some time.</p><p>It was an old piece of work, honestly, from old subreddits to obscure personal blog entries, The Blue Demon in the White Mansion has popped on his radar for the somewhat realistic consistency throughout different posts. The actual monster had not initially interested him (Oikawa was more of a ghost and extraterrestrial person himself); the description was vague and unbecoming of a monster and personally it sounded generic enough to be a discount-Frankenstein so he didn’t think it deserved the sudden surge of fanfare it did back then.</p><p>Instead, what initially caught his attention was the variety of encounters; one post would talk about a group of culturally diverse government officials (a weird detail for sure, but it’s not like it affects the story apart from the occasional cursing in foreign languages) who came to the mansion for shits and giggles but got trapped instead, another would describe a group of mystery-loving students who came to the mansion—which they called an abandoned jailhouse but had the exact same description of the white mansion anyway—to shoot an amateur horror film and suffered the same fate. There were also posts where they encountered the blue demon outside of the mansion, like that one hiker who thought it was a good idea to ignore the nearby villagers’ warnings and hiked the mountains near nightfall and be faced with the monster, or a man who encountered it while randonauting with his dog.</p><p>These stories he eventually ruled out as obvious fiction though, since a lot of them have details like the monster’s internal monologues or intent behind its actions and how they, as the character, died themselves; the ability to describe one’s own death is usually an obvious tell-tale when it comes to these things. True stories are usually unexplainable, after all; they don’t have a punchline or a poetic hook and usually don’t even get a rational resolution in the end either. Weird things just happen to normal people and punch them in the gut with unexplainable things that keeps them up at night but otherwise leave them no harm, that’s just the reality of things. He guessed that maybe someone initially posted the story and other writers jumped to the bandwagon after it got the hype.</p><p>Come to think of it, Oikawa was also intrigued by the place settings of these stories. He had this sense of a murky recollection of where these events took place, a strange feeling of something on the tip of his tongue upon reading the surroundings being described, as if he would be able to pin-point the mansion’s location if someone had given him a map.</p><p>Then again, maybe it’s just because the settings were vague and common enough that Oikawa subconsciously recognized a pattern. After a while though the “consistency” that initially was the main appeal has grown to become too repetitive to be enjoyable, so as the rest of the internet moved on to other fixations, eventually he stopped reading them.</p><p>Nevertheless, there were details he might find useful later on, like the existence of a humanoid entity that could impersonate other people and a safe room that the entity doesn’t know the location of, or how time works in odd ways and he should really keep track of that to avoid getting disoriented in the long run. Even then, Oikawa had to sift through a good amount of content to figure out which ones were real and which ones were only there for the story’s sake. He never knew he would utilize his vast paranormal knowledge into real-life survival situation like this.</p><p>Who was he kidding, of course he did; Oikawa had been devouring a plethora of paranormal content all his life and learned basic survival skills in order to prepare for a movie-like apocalypse of his own; Iwaizumi was adamant that Oikawa was wasting his time but look how the tables have turned!</p><p>He did find one thing disheartening, though.</p><p>In all of the stories he’s read so far about the Blue Demon in the White Mansion, nobody who got in the mansion was able to get out alive.</p><p>The stories where the characters do survive were usually about those who encounter the blue demon outside of the mansion; be it upon hiking the mountains at dark or driving the uneven gravel pathways alone. Nothing about the group of government officials or the mystery-loving teenagers surviving, and certainly nothing about keys to the front door or secret passageways they could use to escape the mansion itself.</p><p>Yeah, maybe he won’t share <em>that</em> bit to Bokuto. Not when he’s having a meltdown right in front of him.</p><p>Oikawa had locked the door behind them, not that Bokuto would notice when he’s frantically searching under beds and inside drawers for anyone hiding, under carpets for secret latches and atop bookshelves for clues of where the rest of their friends might be. They wouldn’t have left without leaving him a note to where they were going, would they? Did they even willfully leave—or were they caught? Bokuto was sure he locked the door behind him, he was sure he heard a click of the lock so why… did the monsters manage to break in? Where were they now?</p><p>Were they even still alive?</p><p>“Bokkun... Bokuto. Hey, come on.” Oikawa intervened when he noticed the other’s shortening breaths. “Calm down. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for this.”</p><p>“They were supposed to be here. I wasn’t gone that long.”</p><p>“I know, I know.”</p><p>“Why would they leave? Tsumu and Aran were injured, they couldn’t have walked around that far. They shouldn’t.”</p><p>“Mhm.”</p><p>“We gotta find them, Oika’a. We gotta.”</p><p>“We will. Let’s calm down first, though.” Oikawa breathed steadily, making sure Bokuto did so too. “We’ll find them, and when we do they’re gonna be just fine and we won’t have a reason to be worried, alright?”</p><p>Bokuto took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “...okay.”</p><p>As he coaxed Bokuto to sit down and recollect himself, Oikawa got up to investigate. The blankets and pillows that were strewn around the carpet were already cold when he touched them. Besides the obvious hiding spots like under the bed and inside the cupboards where Bokuto had already repeatedly checked, there wasn’t really anywhere to hide in this place. Oikawa paid no mind of the dried blood on one corner of the room—or tried to, anyway, the eeriness just wouldn’t leave his conscious. The sight of blood does that to you.</p><p>Either way, the setter couldn’t find a lead to where any of them might be going. And if this was the same as the whole Kageyama situation they’ve got earlier, “We need to move, Bokkun. Sooner rather than later. Anything you want to bring from here before we head out?”</p><p>Bokuto looked around, finally realizing that his bag—or anyone’s for that matter—were nowhere in sight. Did Hinata take it with him? He took what tiny comfort he could get from knowing at least their friends won’t go hungry anytime soon. “No, nothing. You’re right, let’s go.”</p><p>He nodded at Bokuto. “You good?”</p><p>There was a pause. Then, a nod. “I will be once we find the others.”</p><p><em>I guess there’s no helping it</em>, Oikawa sighed as he unlocked the door.</p><p> </p><p>They did find other people, though not the ones they were expecting. Both of them exit the bedroom and checked the other two doors of the same hallway, and as Bokuto knelt down to try and peek through the key hole they heard footsteps coming from the hall near the staircase leading to the upper floor.</p><p>“I can’t just <em>not </em>worry, you know.” Yaku’s voice carried from the otherwise silent halls. “I still can’t believe you look so unfazed after... what happened.”</p><p>“I’m not <em>unfazed</em>.” Hoshiumi admitted.</p><p>And he really wasn’t. Hoshiumi kept unpleasant thoughts locked away somewhere unreachable in the depths of his mind for now, because he needed someone with a clear head and that’s what’s needed to be done, but he’s very much aware of what’s sealed within it, the weight that will inevitably hold him down if not addressed. It was going to be hell unpacking all of it later, but right now he needed to make sure there would <em>be</em> a later. So instead Hoshiumi focused on the two figures on the opposite hall. “What’s going on? Your faces look like shit.”</p><p>“Hoshiumi, why the hell would you say stuff like that unprovoked?”</p><p>Hoshiumi simply grinned in return, to which Yaku lightly shoved him in pretend annoyance. Bokuto glanced up at them from the spot he was kneeling, a glimmer of hope apparent in his eyes. No doubt it was a relief to find other people this fast, no matter who it was.</p><p>“What are you doing out in the open? There’s a monster in this place, and—” Yaku began, but Oikawa cut him off.</p><p>“We know. Bokuto and the others helped fend it off when you guys first saw it, he filled me in on the details.” Oikawa didn’t mean to sound as grim as he did, but what the hell, judging from the poorly concealed firearm on Hoshiumi’s pants pocket, there’s not much room left for these kinds of niceties. “Nice gun.”</p><p>Hoshiumi didn’t even look down at the offending weapon before answering, “Thanks. I got it from a toilet vending machine, it costed like 500 yen or something.”</p><p>“What the fuck is a—what is it with you guys and random stuff found in bathrooms?” Oikawa groaned.</p><p>“Everyone’s good, then?” Yaku asked, and the positivity in Bokuto’s eyes left as fast as it came. “…what? What’s going on?”</p><p>“I guess you didn’t see it, then. Tsumu and Aran got hurt,” the ace said, wincing at Yaku and Hoshiumi’s apprehension as he continued, “it’s not that serious though. I think. Aran knocked his head and Tsumu got clawed on the back but we took care of it and had them bandaged so they should be fine somewhat.”</p><p>“The thing is, though, we don’t know where they are.” Oikawa added. It’s better to just get everything out of the way. “I’d rather go somewhere else to fill you in on everything, somewhere safer and uh, not out in the open like this.”</p><p>“We checked that side already. None of them are locked, but we didn’t find anything particularly note-worthy.”</p><p>“Then, shall we go upstairs?” Bokuto offered.</p><p>Yeah, that sounds like a good bet at least, since they’ve pretty much explored the available rooms in the first floor, but, “I still want to check those rooms first. There’s a chance you guys might have missed something, and we can cover more grounds with four people.”</p><p>Hoshiumi looked at Oikawa for a moment, clearly reluctant to waste any more time, but ultimately relented. “That sounds reasonable. Come on—whoa. What the fuck?”</p><p>Hoshiumi twisted to look downstairs where mannequins littered the area. Yaku followed suit, cursing under his breath.</p><p>Right, this must be the first time they saw it. Bokuto ushered them to keep moving and explained, “Kageyama put them there. You know how you should put red-painted rocks near flowering strawberry bushes?”</p><p>Yaku pinched the bridge of his nose. Hoshiumi spoke up before he could voice his confusion. “Well yeah, it’s to keep birds from eating them, right? But what does that have to do with—“ and then it dawned on him, “—oh. <em>Oh</em>. Son of a bitch, that’s smart.”</p><p>“Wh—how?”</p><p>“Well, birds don’t like to peck on hard stuff and rocks are hard,” Hoshiumi plainly said as if it was obvious. Upon seeing the incredulous stares from Yaku he then elaborated. “Putting red rocks near the bushes before the red strawberries form would make the birds think that those are strawberries, peck at them in effort to eat them, then learn their lesson that the red stuff is inedible so when the real strawberries do grow, they’ll leave ‘em alone.”</p><p>If Yaku pinched the bridge of his nose any longer it would definitely leave a mark. As he pointed at the door on their left for them to file in, he sighed. “What am I not following here?”</p><p>“Tobio figured out that the monster couldn’t distinguish between real people and mannequins.” Oikawa supplied, sympathizing with Yaku for being caught up in the leaping logic Hoshiumi and Bokuto seem to thrive in. “How the hell did he figure that out though? We don’t know if that’s really the case.”</p><p>Hoshiumi entered the room first, followed by Bokuto who thought about the question for a moment, then he remembered the smashed mannequin head he saw earlier. “I think it’s not that big a stretch. Some mannequins were broken when we got there, right? And uh... Kageyama was the last person to exit the kitchen when the monster first attacked us, and I did find it odd that it didn’t go after us immediately so maybe he saw something?”</p><p>Oikawa entered after Yaku, locking the door with a soft click.</p><p>The room seemed to be either a dining or a meeting room, with a long table and six chairs surrounding it in the center. There were shelves on each corner of the room, one in particular was lined with books of varying sizes. Oikawa walked over to it, noting the fireplace across from the door they walked in. “Did you guys check through all of these?”</p><p>“No, we were just looking for hiding spots to find other people, so only the other three cupboards. And even then, we didn’t really take our time with it,” Yaku admitted.</p><p>“I see. Then let’s go through them again. Search for... I don’t know, keys? This building’s layout?” Oikawa shrugged, not sure himself. “Anything we could find useful.”</p><p>Bokuto and Yaku went for the cupboards closer to the door. After checking that there was indeed nothing on the tables and chairs Hoshiumi took the cupboard across from Oikawa.</p><p>The setter began rummaging through the shelves, giving a good shake for some books as he remembered how Kageyama found something important in them back in the library, though what importance it held Oikawa still had no idea.</p><p>“Make sure to look for bullets too,” Hoshiumi piped up, “for the gun.”</p><p>Oikawa snorted, looking over at Hoshiumi. “You guys got the gun but not the bullets?”</p><p>“Hey, we got it really cheap and it’s not like we—hey Oikawa watch it—!“ Hoshiumi rushed forward, but Oikawa’s hand brushed over a small clock on the edge of the shelves and knocked it over with a clatter—</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>He needed to find the book, if he had it then—</em>
</p><p><em>Oikawa tore through the bookshelves, uncaring of the thuds of books falling from each</em> <em> shelf</em> <em>. His movements were careless</em> <em>, frantical</em> <em>l</em> <em>y</em> <em> muttering the same</em> <em> thing </em> <em>over and over again so much that it lost meaning. A faint smell of rust emanated from somewhere behind him only made his heart beat faster. Quickly, before someone comes and takes away whatever progress they’ve made,</em> <em> hurry,</em> <em> before he bleeds out, he needs to do something, anything... where the fuck is it?!</em></p><p>
  <em>The level of unease was becoming unbearable, leaving him in an excessively paranoid state of constantly gasping for air into the lungs that felt like collapsing.</em>
</p><p><em>He didn’t need this now, goddammit, he needed to think, think, but with each ticks of the clock a mallet pounds on his chest and the walls are caving in. There’s got</em> <em> to</em> <em> be a way out, there has to be—!</em></p><p>
  <em>Oikawa grabbed the clock and smashed it to the wall.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Oi, earth to Oikawa. You there?”</p><p>A voice snapped him out of a haze and when Oikawa looked up his eyes met with Yaku’s.</p><p>The ground felt like it was swaying.</p><p>“Yeah, uh, sorry, I—” Oikawa stuttered out. Did he just space out? “I guess I’m just a bit shaken. Sorry for uhh... freaking out and smashing the clock like that.”</p><p>“It’s okay, man. You didn’t do it on purpose,” Yaku waved it off.</p><p>“... huh?”</p><p>“Yeah, I didn’t even notice the clock was there until you knocked it over. It’s an accident, and the fall wasn’t even that loud so don’t worry about it.”</p><p>But didn’t he—? Oikawa’s foot came in contact with a small clock, the small of its edges bent but otherwise percectly intact. “Oh… I… guess I didn’t? That’s…” Oikawa rubbed his temples. Something wasn’t clicking. The lingering desperation of hanging onto an inch of his life, the shake in his body and that dreadful feeling that he was about to die, it felt too real to not be anything at all. “Did you guys not… see anything weird?”</p><p>The look of concern in Yaku’s face was very telling. “Okay, maybe you should lie down…”</p><p>“No—! I really did see something weird, like a hallucination, or… or alternate realities—did none of you see it? Yaku? Bokkun?” Bokuto, who looked over from the cupboard he was rummaging through, shook his head. He decided to walk over as Yaku’s frown deepened. “Hoshiumi, you saw something, right? Tell me you saw something.”</p><p> </p><p>Finding no answer, Oikawa turned to see Hoshiumi who stood motionless by one of the chairs. Oikawa’s question broke his trance just enough for him to look back up.</p><p>Yaku groaned. “Not him too—”</p><p>The words barely left Yaku’s mouth when Hoshiumi tackled Oikawa, sending them both to the ground with Hoshiumi holding him down by the neck.</p><p>“Wh—"</p><p>“You’re not the real Oikawa.” Hoshiumi growled. The grip on Oikawa’s collar tightened.</p><p> </p><p>“Who are you?”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>His back pressed against the unmoving bookshelves, Kenma looked up in terror for what’s coming for him. The monster met his gaze, entering the library through the unlocked door—he thought he’d locked it, he could’ve sworn...</em>
</p><p><em>One step. Two. The creature stared him down, walking </em> <em>closer in such deliberate languidness</em> <em> Kenma wouldn’t have guessed it was the same creature that tore down the hall</em> <em>s</em> <em> after him in ungodly speeds just seconds before.</em></p><p>
  <em>A clawed hand reached out and pulled him by the neck.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He wasn’t sure what was more painful; the harrowing pain from an open wound on his forehead as trickling blood stung his barely focused eyes, or the forming bruises on his neck that made breathing choked and shallow.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And the worst thing is, even as his feet hovered above ground and his neck felt like it would snap if he dared move an inch, Kenma knew.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>You only have to look to figure it out—the curious tilt of its head paired with that unmistakable indifference he knew all too well even in the face of an inhuman creature—or maybe he was just going crazy from the lack of oxygen but there’s no doubt about it.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It fucking sucks, really, to die in the hands of something that wasn’t even trying to kill you.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Kozume. Snap out of it.”</p><p>Kenma’s eyes snapped back open. Sakusa was standing before him.</p><p>“You okay? You’re lagging behind so I had to fall back and check on you.”</p><p>They’re standing in the hallway. What hallway? Why the hallway? Where did they get here?</p><p>“Wakatoshi-kun is up ahead, it looks like whatever Kageyama was following is headed upstairs.” Sakusa supplied, looking over him. “Hey, look, the others are still in the safe room, are you sure you’re coming with us? You can go back if you want.”</p><p>“I... see...” Kenma gulped down his nerves.</p><p>Sakusa, he was apparently looking out for him, but this kind of attention felt kind of... annoying. It made Kenma feel small more than anything, like Sakusa was belittling him though he knew that’s not really true. For whatever time they had to know each other Kenma knew that Sakusa isn’t the type to make light of anyone without a good reason.</p><p>So he tried his best to hang in there himself. “I’m... fine,” he managed to say, falling into steps beside Sakusa.</p><p>“Are you sure? Because—“</p><p>“I’m fine.” Kenma repeated, with more clarity this time. <em>I won’t be too much of a burden so lay it off already.</em></p><p>“Alright. Let’s go, then.”</p><p>The third floor was considerably smaller than the second, with only one door by the right of the staircase (Kenma took note on the fact that it was opened and even slightly ajar, but Kageyama was currently the priority so they’ll investigate later if needed) and another on the hall that connected between the lower staircase and the next.</p><p>There was another door by the staircase, but neither Kenma nor Sakusa got to inspect it before they saw Ushijima rushing down from whence he came, shouting a haste command as heavy, thundering footsteps followed.</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>“RUN!”</em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hey so I’m thinking abt changing the title of this fic into something else? I had a thing planned out to make sense of the title in later chapters but uhh idk I’m starting to think it’s a tad unoriginal? Idk what to change it to, though. Hnngggghhhhh I'll update you all later if I come up with anything, but in the meantime let me know what you think about this chapter in the comments and I'll see you guys later!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Playing to Lose</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Oikawa always thought he’d be good in fights.</p><p>Since he had imagined it in his head so often, Oikawa could’ve sworn it’d be easy enough to throw a good punch or two, maybe even act all charming while doing so. It was partially the fault of those action movies he and Iwaizumi watched so often. He has seen some brawls before, of course—though he’s never been actively involved in them—and Iwaizumi had taught him basic self-defense moves way back when, so he was convinced he could put on a good show in a level ground.</p><p>But was a wake-up call really that necessary? If not from all his interaction with his brute childhood friend, his first alien encounter earlier should’ve been proof enough that in a choice between fight or flight Oikawa would pick flight any day. And even if comparing petty bar fights with defeating a literal monster is too unfair, Oikawa knew that it was impossible to figure out what your opponent is going for and smoothly act around it when you’re not an experienced martial artist.</p><p>Oikawa understood that perfectly now because when Hoshiumi tackled him Oikawa was caught by surprise and he didn’t have time to brace for the stinging pain as his head connected to the floor.</p><p>“You’re not the real Oikawa,” Hoshiumi growled. “Who are you?”</p><p>“What—?”</p><p>Oikawa tried to pry Hoshiumi’s fingers from his neck but his grip only tightened until there was barely room to gasp. Yaku shrieked. “Hoshiumi, what the fuck is wrong with you?!”</p><p>Bokuto’s eyes darted wildly between those three and the locked door. “Keep your voice down—what is going on?”</p><p>“I saw you! You lured the monster to me and Yaku and separated us from Kenma and the others!”</p><p>“We haven’t even met Kenma yet! Get off of him!” Yaku countered as he tried to pry Hoshiumi off of Oikawa.</p><p>Hoshiumi’s glare dampened.</p><p>“What…? But he…”</p><p>His grip loosened and Oikawa took the opportunity to wiggle free from Hoshiumi. He rubbed his neck where he could practically feel the red marks forming. Damn, he doesn’t hold back.</p><p> </p><p>“Now that that’s out of the way,” Oikawa said cheerfully in an attempt to recover the previous light atmosphere, brushing aside Bokuto and Yaku as he smoothed his shirt. “You saw something, didn’t you?”</p><p>Hoshiumi slumped to the ground right by the unlit fireplace. Oikawa would’ve been angrier if he didn’t look so honestly lost and confused.</p><p>“...I saw you… well, it’s not <em>you</em>, but they had your face. Your voice, too. They said they might have a clue on how to get out of here but when Yaku and I followed them, there was a monster, and their face contorted into—” Hoshiumi forced his eyes shut, curling into himself. “Where the fuck did that come from, that vision? I knew there’s a monster here but… it’s like I was watching something that came out of a horror movie. It’s not real, is it?”</p><p>“I’d never do anything that puts the rest of us in danger like that, that’s for sure,” Oikawa assured, though it was clear his reassurances did nothing to answer the more pressing questions.</p><p>Did he say someone was wearing his face? Oikawa’s mind circled back to one of the posts for The Blue Demon in the White Mansion, heart sinking. There indeed was a detail of an entity who can shape-shift… but he thought it could only mimic things imperfectly? And besides, Hoshiumi couldn’t have possibly known that detail since he hadn’t told them about it, so maybe there’s a tiny bit of credibility in these visions they’re seeing. Could these visions really be…?</p><p> </p><p>Nevertheless, Hoshiumi nodded, drawing a deep breath as he tried to reorient himself. “Sorry I jumped to conclusions like that. It just felt so real I reacted without thinking.”</p><p>“It’s fine, this place does things to people’s heads. I thought... I saw myself smashing the clock on purpose just now.” Oikawa shook his head, dispelling the feeling of dread that came with the vision. He turned to the remaining two, who settled their worries as Hoshiumi calmed down. “What about you two? Did you not see anything weird?”</p><p>Yaku glanced at the ceiling, thinking for a bit. “I guess I remember complaining about how you and Atsumu wouldn’t shut up when we were doing upstairs. I found it strange that I remember it right then but Atsumu was doing a poor job mimicking a game show host voice so I suppose it was memorable enough.”</p><p>“Yeah, and I only remembered running after Kageyama before meeting Hinata. Thinking about that out of nowhere is kind of weird, but it’s not <em>that</em> weird.” Bokuto stopped and thought for a moment before it dawned on him, “Hold on… that’s not right.”</p><p>“Wait, Yaku-san,<em> I</em> did the voice thing,” Hoshiumi interjected.</p><p>“I assume yours is also out of order, Bokkun?”</p><p>“I… guess so? I met <em>you</em>, Oikawa.” Bokuto scratched his head, plopping down next to Hoshiumi. “So all of us remembered false memories and it happened when the clock broke. That’s creepy.”</p><p>“Ours is only slightly distorted though. What Hoshiumi saw, however…”</p><p>All three of them threw concerned glances to Hoshiumi, which made him curl further into himself.</p><p>“That couldn’t have been a memory. This whole place is screwing with our minds.” Oikawa took a deep breath. This was confirming his doubts, but what exactly it confirmed, even he didn’t know for sure. There were still so many gaps need filling and the only way to fill them is through exploring this god-forsaken mansion some more. He’s not sure if he wanted to do any more exploring than needed to escape, but they need to be prepared in case anything like this ever happens again.</p><p>Nudging the clock aside, Oikawa offered a hand for Hoshiumi to stand up. “Come on. Unless we found proof that whatever we saw was real, we’re going to treat it as a false memory.”</p><p>It’s easier this way. In a place where uncertainties could get you dead, they need to believe in each other.</p><p>“Let’s just go and find the others then,” Bokuto said, and the rest nodded as he reached over to unlock the door.</p><p> </p><p>Only to find himself face-to-face with a monster.</p><p> </p><p>Back during the fight with Kuroo and the others, Bokuto noticed the dissimilarities between the first monster they encountered and the one they were fighting; it was smaller, shorter, its arms didn’t quite reach as far as he thought it would when he first laid eyes on it in the kitchen.</p><p>He told Kuroo about it, though he thought those little contrasts could’ve easily been brushed off as his faulty observation.</p><p>But this one, this one was a different monster altogether. It was more skeletal, with beam-like ribs protruding its back and long bending claws that resembled hooks. The eyes that were staring him down looked like they were going to fall off of its sockets with how little meat it had on its face—its whole body looked like bones wrapped in a blanket of loose, greyish skin. The creature reeked of rot, and there was a trail of dark liquid from the base of its exposed ribs.</p><p>Bokuto’s hand reached for his metal pipe, only to realize he had foolishly left it at the safe spot when he slipped out to investigate. But he didn’t see the weapon when he and Oikawa came back to the now empty room, so where could it have possibly been—</p><p>Letting himself wonder even for a second was Bokuto’s fatal mistake. Before blood could drain from his face, the door burst wider and long hooks for claws slashed in his direction, the hooks pierced through his torso with terrifying ease unbecoming of its build.</p><p>The monster effortlessly lifted Bokuto off his feet and flung him off, sending the nearest shelves crashing down with him. It wasn’t clear if the cracking sound was from the shelves or his spine. Bokuto twitched and whimpered as blood quickly pooled beneath him,</p><p>then… nothing.</p><p>“Bokuto—!” Yaku screamed, but it was too late.</p><p>When the monster went after him next, Yaku didn’t even have time to do as much as flinch. On the spur of the moment, Hoshiumi threw himself into the crossfire and shoved Yaku out of the way, but in doing so a palm larger than his torso bashed him instead, square in the head, his neck twisting painfully so as he crashed to the ground.</p><p>“Yaku! Run!” Not letting himself have any second-thoughts, Oikawa grabbed a book nearest to him and threw it towards the monster before it could land the finishing blow. It landed squarely on its face, but as one would imagine a flimsy book didn’t do much damage to the lanky figure rather than direct its attention to the thrower.</p><p>Oikawa’s eyes widened in horror. There’s an extreme pain in his chest and his head felt like it was caving in on itself—</p><p>When was he on the ground again?</p><p> </p><p>At the last second his head turned to face the open door. He saw, with blurring vision, a figure running towards him, face contorted into a scream.</p><p>It’s so… quiet. He heard nothing.</p><p>The last thing Oikawa saw was Kageyama reaching out to him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“<em>RUN!</em>”</p><p>A glimpse of a greyish blue figure pummeling towards the staircase was all it took for Kenma and Sakusa to sprint off, but where to? They couldn’t possibly go straight back; if the monster caught them in time then they’d only put Aran and Atsumu in danger since they couldn’t run as fast as the others, so where—</p><p>“This way!” Ushijima didn’t need to tell them twice, all three of them leaped into the opened door nearest to the staircase, into a wide room with rows of bookcases, yanking on the knob—</p><p>Not fast enough. A huge clawed hand was caught between the door before it could completely close. Ushijima tried to ram it shut and Sakusa was quick to follow, but another hand wedged itself through and yanked the door handle from them, slamming it open.</p><p>Both of them took several steps back. The creature stepped inside.</p><p>Though Sakusa had Bokuto’s metal pipe, Ushijima didn’t think of bringing a weapon with him in their haste to catch up with Kageyama. Speaking of, where was he, anyway? Ushijima saw Kageyama rounding up the banister as he walked upstairs, but when he arrived there was a suspicious amount of smoke in the air and this monster was already making its way towards him—no, this was not the time to think about that, they needed a plan to escape, something to hold that thing down, something—</p><p>A limb lifted to strike.</p><p>Sakusa took that opening as a chance to swing, landing a solid blow on its torso. The monster groaned and staggered back, and Sakusa took the chance to shout, “Wakatoshi-kun, Kozume has a plan—“</p><p>“Ushijima! Over here!” Kenma cried out from behind one of the bookcases. The bookcase itself didn’t look all that ideal for a hiding place, it looked solid enough but it could be moved just from Kenma ramming it with his shoulder like that—oh, was Kenma planning to…? “Here! Lure it here!”</p><p>As Sakusa successfully landed another hit on the creature’s arm, Ushijima quickly followed Kenma’s directions. A shoulder on the shelves next to Kenma, he began pushing in sync. Several books fell over the shelves as it wobbled and swayed, a little bit more and it might tip over— “Sakusa! Quickly!”</p><p>Nodding, Sakusa swiftly retreated closer to the other two, the metal pipe still pointing at the monster who grunted and whined as it stepped closer, its claws ready to lurch forward—</p><p>The bookcase came crashing down with the monster under it.</p><p> </p><p>It twitched, groaned, then... nothing.</p><p> </p><p> “Is... is it dead?” Sakusa took a tentative step forward. The creature didn’t do as much as lift a finger.</p><p> </p><p>They couldn’t believe it. They killed their first monster. It felt too good to be true.</p><p> </p><p>“Let’s get out of here before that thing wakes up,” Ushijima stated, not letting anyone be swayed by the moment at the cost of potential danger, and the three of them swiftly filtered out of the room. He took the liberty of snatching the key conveniently placed behind the door and locked the library with the monster in it.</p><p>Now if the monster really didn’t know how to open locks and if the creature wasn’t strong enough to outright destroy doors on a whim (or, in a less likely scenario that it operated in arbitrary rules that prevented it from outright destroying doors on a whim), then they wouldn’t have to fear being chased anytime soon. With that weight off of their chest, they could start focusing on planning an escape without having to think about how to efficiently carry two injured people around without getting caught by the monster.</p><p>As they started to head back, Kenma chanced a glance to the opposing hallway and saw something moving.</p><p>“Is that…?” Kenma mumbled to himself, which caught Sakusa and Ushijima’s attention. All three of them turned to see, at the corridor leading to the upper staircase, a mop of dark hair making his way downstairs.</p><p>It was Kageyama.</p><p>To be honest, his first instinct was to get angry. Kageyama ran off on his own with little regard to his own and others’ safety, and when Kenma thought he heard Kageyama back he led him into danger. But, as Sakusa’s palm rested on his shoulder to prevent him from doing anything irrational, he saw that Kageyama was… beaten up.</p><p>He had a hand on the wall for support, and his pace was barely faster than a crawl. Even from this distance, they could see the tattered clothes and considerable limp in his steps.</p><p>He stopped in front of one of the locked doors and pulled out what could only be a key from his pocket. Fumbling with the key, he twisted the lock open and slipped inside.</p><p>There was a light thud almost immediately, but the door never closed.</p><p>Kenma looked back at the other two, wordlessly asking what their next move should be. Coming up with a unanimous answer, they quietly followed to the door, with Ushijima right in front.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>When time still moved forward in unison, when Kageyama was left alone.</em>
</p><p>Blank dark blue eyes stared out into the forest, watching the woods in a whirl as rain fizzled away around him, enveloping him with a sense of loneliness, emptiness. As though he’d been drained whole.</p><p>The world turned into a blur, and so did all the sounds. The taste of iron in his mouth. The smell of rust intertwined with petrichor. The throbbing pain from his insides. The world had vanished for him, cruelly torn away from his fingers, and now there was only pain enough to break him, enough to turn his insides into mush.</p><p>So he cried, and he cried and he cried and the rain won’t stop pouring down.</p><p> </p><p>The front door clicked and creaked open.</p><p>Kageyama’s head snapped up faster than it ever did to turn to the door. Right there in the doorway, with one hand on the doorknob and another hauling… a limp Hinata Shoyou. His heart dropped to his stomach.</p><p>Hinata didn’t make it.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, a Kageyama! Welcome, welcome! I’ve always wanted to meet one of you alive.”</p><p> </p><p>The unfamiliar face, engulfed with a dark green scarf as it was, grinned, a set of dark blue eyes wide and amused as if he hadn’t just stepped outside with his best friend’s body in tow. “It seems that you are in quite a predicament. Legs not working?” He grinned at Kageyama, who curled his hands into fists as he stood his ground.</p><p>The stranger released Hinata from his grip onto the drenched gravel path. He landed with a wet thud. Kageyama thought his heart was going to burst.</p><p> </p><p>“This has been the most fun I’ve had in literal <em>years</em>, you know,” the stranger remarked, inching closer to Kageyama in light steps, his boots splashing through the shallow red puddles. “What do you say we do it all over again?”</p><p> </p><p>Time didn’t feel like it was moving anymore. He could hardly hear the droplets of rain and leaves rustling with the wind nor the occasional thunders from the distance.</p><p> </p><p>This didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.</p><p> </p><p>“I might have a way to bring your friends back.”</p><p> </p><p>Kageyama’s eyes shot up and the stranger cackled. His voice was manic now, like nothing Kageyama has ever heard before.</p><p>“What—” Kageyama managed to say, face florid, “—what do you mean?”</p><p>“I want to play a game.” With that, the stranger took a step closer into the pouring rain. Kageyama found himself staggering several steps back. “Oh, this will be so much fun. I propose a killing game! You’ll try to kill me,” another laughter, “and I’ll kill all of your friends. If I win, we get to play again! The game’s over when you win.”</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>…what was he saying?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Something snapped within him. “The fuck do you mean?! They’re— <em>they’re dead already!</em> Every last one of them!” Kageyama’s hands curled tighter until it drew blood. They’re gone, Bokuto-san, Atsumu-san, Hoshiumi-san, Aran-san, Sakusa-san, Yaku-san, Kozume-san, Ushijima-san, Oikawa-san, Kuroo-san, hell even Hinata was lying right there! They were just talking moments ago! It was all too real, he’s all by himself and it was too frightening, Kageyama couldn’t bear it alone, he couldn’t—</p><p>The stranger blinked. An amused glint danced in his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh my. You don’t know about the restart.”</p><p> </p><p>The stranger tossed him a book. Leatherbound, yellowing pages, filled with neat handwriting and unfamiliar symbols. Initials were carved on the cover. KT. “What is—"</p><p>“The restart button— well, sort of. It has instructions to restart stuff, so the name fits, you know? The Professor modeled the formula from ancient relics, you see, so it’s really more like an epic supernatural science project that challenges today’s perceptive of the fundamentals of science but—” another cackle. “—no, you’re not interested in that, you just want to save your <em>friends</em>,” he said mockingly. Kageyama’s lost expression retorted back into a frustrated glare.</p><p> </p><p>“Anyways. It only works with the Kageyama’s, so it’s useless to me. Read the instructions and rewind it, already. And when you do, make sure to kill me, okay? I’ll be waiting.”</p><p> </p><p>And then he <em>left</em>.</p><p> </p><p>He just left and Kageyama was alone with a book of suspicious origins and the unmoving body of his best friend and he can’t take it anymore.</p><p> </p><p>It took him hours to understand the instructions, sitting on the doorstep so the ink in the book wouldn’t get washed away when all he wanted to do was curl up next to his best friend’s body and lament the calamity that befell them. By then, he was swimming in and out of consciousness and there were large black spots in his vision and the blood on Hinata had almost entirely become one with the puddles.</p><p>Kageyama got blood from the palm of his hand onto his thumb, smeared them counterclockwise to the very last page, and prayed. He prayed that his friends would come back to him, alive and healthy. He prayed to see Hinata’s eyes on him and laughing without a care in the world. He prayed to be free from this fucking mansion already, never to see it again.</p><p>His vision blurred even more and he let his eyes shut, distantly noting a blue light emitting from where his blood had smeared the book and prayed to have everything back to normal.</p><p>But instead, he found himself on a car ride by nightfall. And his torment has only just begun.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>a lot of veil-uncovering in this chapter! If anyone missed it, the last part is a continuation of How It First Ended.<br/>Let me know your thoughts abt this chapter in the comments and I'll see you soon!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Erased.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This fic has been a burden to keep track of—pulled an all-nighter to write this and sfsfdsfbfdaljglsd idk. Idk.</p><p>I am so, so sorry.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Kenma looked back at the other two, wordlessly asking what their next move should be. Coming up with a unanimous answer, they quietly followed to the door, with Ushijima right in front.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>The thing about Ushijima is that he is very, very tall. And large. Standing with 6’2” and a very large build meant that Kenma had a good seven inches of height difference that blocked his view as he entered the room. And with Sakusa walking closely behind him, Kenma’s 5’6” self was practically sandwiched between two burly men that didn’t really give him space to move around much, which, in terms of safety from unprecedented attacks, he would be the one safest with the other two as living armor, but it also means that Kenma sees neither the barrel of a loaded gun readily pointing at the door nor the cold indifference in the person who pulled the trigger.</p><p> </p><p>He only heard the heart-stopping bang.</p><p> </p><p>It almost sounded like a cracking whip and it was so, so surreal that Kenma’s hand twitched to touch the side of his head to see if he was actually wearing his headset this whole time, to see if he was mindlessly streaming another speedrun and not just walked into something infinitely more life-threatening.</p><p>Ushijima staggered back, Sakusa rushed forward to support him by the shoulder. There was red seeping into his shirt, even into the small of his back where the bullet must’ve exited. Kenma chanced a look behind him, a section of his right upper arm stinging numbly, finding a tiny hole digging into the floor where the bullet must’ve missed him by a hair.</p><p>The door slammed shut behind them.</p><p>Kenma’s eyes shakily traced the trajectory back to the person who stood unmoving, a smoking gun in hand. “Why…?”</p><p>“Why?” Kageyama, lowering the gun, echoed. “Because I’m tired, Kozume.”</p><p>He spoke in hushed tones and Kenma almost didn’t catch his mouth moving, Sakusa’s frantic efforts in stopping Ushijima’s bleeding nearly drowned it all. He let a clumsy “What?” slip out before he could filter anything, and it gained a loopy smile as a response.</p><p>Kageyama’s eyes darted around the three people in the room with him with an unmistakable resolve as he raised the gun back up, this time pointing at Sakusa who knelt shielding Ushijima.</p><p>“Oh don’t give me that look—I know the repulsion you feel when you have to get near any one of us, Sakusa.” Kageyama spat, gesturing at Ushijima’s open wound that Sakusa was desperately trying to keep from bleeding too much. “You hate just being near people and I can only imagine how bad your skin crawls right now, what with that much blood in your hands.”</p><p>And it did feel like Sakusa’s hands are going to fall off from how much it shook, the texture of dark red seeping between his fingers as he applied pressure on Ushijima’s wound felt like it won’t come off no matter how many times he’d washed his hands, and he was fighting not to let the anxiousness rising onto his spine like a slimy bundle of nerves get the best of him.</p><p>But it’s also hard to stay focused on the uneasiness scratching on his brain when Ushijima was spasming in debilitating pain just underneath him.</p><p>So he focused his attention on that instead. “You can still fix this—<em>we </em>can still fix this! Whatever you want, we’ll do as you say, so just—the others are right downstairs if we could just get him medical attention, we’ll—we’ll say that it was an accident—”</p><p>“Don’t give me that.”</p><p> </p><p>It was the second time Kageyama pulled the trigger.</p><p> </p><p>Kenma wasn’t sure if he screamed, or if it was Sakusa who did, but one thing he knows for sure is that blood had splattered to his face and eyes and into his mouth and the rushing smell of rust invading his nostrils made him want to vomit, so Kenma bent forward and retched a sickening stream of acid, and the combined smell of both only made him want to vomit even more.</p><p>Sakusa and Ushijima were no longer listening at this point, frozen in eternal dread on top of each other.</p><p>Kageyama’s attention, and thus the gun’s target, shifted to Kenma.</p><p>“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve repeated this conversation, Kozume? How much I’ve endured the loops? You think time works in chronology but all I’ve experienced is anything but. No law of nature or physics demands it has any direction at all, and obviously so, because all I’ve known since we’ve entered this fucking shit hole are tiny splices of memories that repeat themselves, over and over and over again because the book wouldn’t take me any further than the time where we’re driving up to this fucking place, it’s driving me crazy. And oh, who’s fault is that that we’re stuck here in the first place?”</p><p>A hitched sob stopped Kageyama midsentence and as he paused the ground seemed to sway under Kenma’s feet, as if his whole existence was crumbling, and it was. What the hell was Kageyama talking about? Loops? Splices of memories?</p><p>Kageyama blamed him for being trapped here?</p><p>It made sense to place the blame on him, really even Kenma himself felt that way too—if only he didn’t choose to come here at all—</p><p>“I’ve tried to change our fates—you can’t tell me that I haven’t.” Kageyama rambled on, becoming more and more frantic by the second as the bitterness in his voice corrode his own mind. “Every time I stepped out of that car, I thought I’d never see any of you alive again, that all of you would die on me again, and every single time I was right. All of you left me, every single time. How does it feel, to die painful deaths and have it looped over and over again, demand for me to redo the loops even, and live through it all? Ah, but you didn’t get to live through that, did you? <em>Only I remember.</em>”</p><p>This wasn’t the Kageyama he knew, was it?</p><p>“And I’m <em>tired</em>, Kozume. It never stops rewinding over and over again and I’m sick of it, it doesn’t matter anymore how much I try. And I thought, if that bastard kept me here because he wanted to see a good show than maybe—maybe if <em>I </em>killed all of you myself then it would be a good enough entertainment for him to let me go. You understand that, right? You know, right? I want to end it all. I just want it to stop, I don’t want to play this godawful game anymore. And… if we’ve been in this loop before, then haven’t I already made this choice?”</p><p>Kageyama stepped closer, unheeding the pool of blood and bile staining his shoes as he walked. His eyes darted forward but it didn’t quite <em>look </em>at Kenma.</p><p>“I’d tell you to run, but it’s best to give you the most painless death after all.”</p><p> </p><p>And the trembling in his hands ceased.</p><p> </p><p>“Goodbye, Kozume.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>📷 lmao didya think I would let it end like that?</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Haha *whips and nae naed* got ya gud dumazz *dabs* (my sister wrote that in so I am legally required to put that in as per the sibling writers’ treaty)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>I caught y’all good didn’t I lmaoooo this chapter isn’t a part of the fic I just thought about the possibility of Kageyama’s insanity arc and ran with it</p><p>like I said in previous chapters I don’t have the intention of abandoning this fic just yet, so if I vanish for a bit please be patient with me! I’ll readjust the settings when I have the time. Happy April Fool’s day my lovelies &lt;3</p><p> </p><p>Also, if you spot the lil tiny Lucids lines here and there ily forever :D</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>it is 1 am where I'm at so it's technically April 1st idc idc</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. What it Means to be a Martyr (drowning is so easy)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All aboard the angst train! I’ve been bullying Tobio too much… hope I don’t get too harsh of a punishment because of it haha<br/>If it’s still not clear, the previous chapter isn’t the part of this story! Treat it as an alternate bad ending or what could have been, if you will.<br/><s>also, I'm so so sorry if it looks too rushed-</s></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>The hours seeped together, the loops in a blend. When Kageyama next looked up, the sun was still illuminating the growing woods lining the road in purplish shepherd’s delight and he sat crammed in the backseat of a car starting uphill, up, up, up to the mansion that they would soon realize became their death trap.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“This time... surely...”</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Kageyama couldn’t remember if he’d ever heard of this mansion before.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But then again, there wasn’t much left of anything he could remember. He picked up clues during conversations along the car trip here though: the mansion was an inherited property, the owner didn’t bother much with renovations but they couldn’t sell it so they settled for leasing. The townsfolk generally stayed away from the place since it’s further into the woods than the edge of the town, and that’s about all he could gather before the subject changes. He took note of everything in the book though.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>He didn’t trust himself remembering everything. Not anymore.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Running, running, around another corner. Another. Down the corridor, up the stairs, around the bend through a door where the key fits. Kageyama paused as he gasped for air, but only for a moment. A moment is all he had.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The door slammed open and he leaped backward, running through the halls yet again.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Once more he had a brief moment of respite. Kageyama let himself sink onto the floor, carelessly choosing a tome from the bookshelves at random. The book, weary and yellowing as it was, told of monsters and pocket dimensions that exist in loops. His dark blue eyes scanned the pages in search of anything he’d missed, a detrimental flaw in this seemingly impenetrable cage, a pathway hidden somewhere that leads to anywhere but here, a clue on getting out, if only for everyone in the expense of himself—</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The door swung off its hinges. Book still in hand, Kageyama ran.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The darkness faded away and he’s there.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>His eyes suited the gore of the scene, splatters of blood blocking most of his vision. There was anguish there, how pretty are the flames of vengeance in hate-filled eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There’s no room for humanity now. Kageyama charged forward, a knife in hand.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Kageyama appeared more haggard every time they met.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What’s going on, Tobio?” came Oikawa’s exasperated voice.</em>
</p><p><em>Oikawa knew the answer to his own question, of course he did; he always figured it out in most of these loops even without Kageyama explaining anything to him. But he asked the question anyway, expecting, </em>wishing<em>that Kageyama tells him that what he thinks is happening, isn’t. He wanted Kageyama to say that he’s wrong.</em></p><p>
  <em>But he knew, of course he did. Oikawa was not an idiot.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And Oikawa deserved the truth. And Kageyama has come to resent lying to his friends so much. “All of them are dead, Oikawa-san.”</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Kageyama couldn’t tell if the uncomfortable stickiness that clung to his skin were from the rain or from the blood that he’d gotten on him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I don’t understand…” he whimpered pathetically, not bothering to look up at the only other person left standing, “why not just kill me…?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The wretched person, his dark green scarf partially soaked with blackened blood, threw his head back and cackled. “Oh, you poor misguided soul. You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”</em>
</p><p><em>Constantly screaming screaming </em>screaming—</p><p>
  <em>“This isn’t right!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I want them back!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I should’ve died instead!”</em>
</p><p><em>“Why not </em>me<em>?!”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Why won’t you kill me instead?! Just take me!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Screaming. Sobbing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Kageyama stayed there on the pebblestone walkway longer than the rain did.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But eventually, agonizingly, he picked himself back up.</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>“I’m sorry we can’t make it this time too.” Hands bloody and sliced open, Kageyama’s voice breaks. “They’re getting stronger every time. I can’t do this alone.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You have to! Or else—” Hinata sobbed. “You have to…”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And his apologies only flooded more after that.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m sorry I made a mistake again.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I wish I was smarter than this!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I should’ve come faster.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it in time.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”</em>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Kageyama stared dully to the ceiling.</p><p>He had a gash on his left cheek, narrowly missing his eye sockets. He supposed it could have been from when he wrestled Oikawa for the knife, or maybe it was when he faceplanted near plate shards in the kitchen, or… did those things even happened in this loop? So hard to remember these days.</p><p>At length, Kageyama pulled himself up to his feet. The book just beside him, in frantic writing of barely legible Japanese over Italian, warned of different sets of scenarios of the near future—past? It already happened, but it hadn’t this time around, or at least Kageyama thought it hasn’t happened yet.</p><p>How long has he been resting, anyway? He didn’t have time for this.</p><p>He fumbled with the knob and staggered outside, using the walls as a guide as he walked with hooded eyelids. It wasn’t until Kageyama reached the top of the staircase looking down at the steps did his body finally succeeded in forcing him to acknowledge the full gravity of his wounds. Placing his hand on the banister resting a lot of his weight against it, he looked down at his limbs.</p><p>This spreading purple with yellow blotches peeking from shredded fabric here and there, this stinging sprain in his ankles, Kageyama shrugged it off as mere surface wounds. He was lucky not to have broken bones—at least, he’s pretty sure nothing’s broken quite yet.</p><p>It’s nothing.</p><p>No, he <em>needed</em> it to be nothing. The others surely need him to be strong for what was coming and if he gave away even the slightest weakness, then— he needed strength to endure it just a little longer. There’s no telling the level of danger he would be in if one of those monsters caught up to him out in the open like this.</p><p>So Kageyama forced himself upright with the memories of when it’s much worse than this, much more debilitating than this, and the stakes of what he might lose should serve as a lifeline to keep going.</p><p>Each step of the staircase swirled before his unfocused eyes and his breaths hitched in barely concealed pain. Still, Kageyama didn’t let his steps slow for even a second.</p><p>He almost dropped the key from how much his hands shook. The light-colored wallpaper and the piano stationed right in the middle of the room swirled further into blurring colors as Kageyama struggled to close the door behind him. His head spiraled with it, the motion of simply turning his back to the door, and his body was just so, so heavy.</p><p>Kageyama didn’t even notice himself crashing as darkness consumed him.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope this chapter wasn’t too confusing!<br/>I've said this in the comment section last chapter but in case you didn't see it, here's to notify y'all that I won't be updating in a while. it's for personal reasons (there will be several things I need to attend to and I’m super excited about it!), but that also means that this fic is gonna be on the backburner for at least several weeks <s>and kags can peacefully rest without me bullying him so much</s><br/>I feel guilty not notifying you guys, especially since I haven't been keeping my promise in updating regularly lol I'll make sure to settle things at my end ASAP before coming back with regular scheduled updates.<br/>thank you so, so much for understanding. hope I get to see y'all soon!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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